Other resources

The following Web resources address logistical and ethical issues associated with collection of biological specimens for research.

General resources

• The UNC Core Facilities provide a variety of services to the UNC campus including specimen assay. Their searchable directory indicates what services are available through the various cores.

• The UNC Clinical Nutrition Research Center is a campus resource for researchers interested in combining basic nutrition and studies of populations in an effort to answer questions on how nutrition affects health. The center can provide guidance about collection and assay of nutrition-related biomarkers.

• The UNC Center for Infectious Diseases, also on the UNC campus, provides ongoing clinical, educational, and research capacity for studies related to infectious diseases.

• Cells and Surveys: Should Biological Markers Be Included in Social Science Research? The National Academies Press published this book about issues related to inclusion of biological/genetic markers in social science research. The full text is available online.

• Network of Measurement of Biological Risk is a resource linked to the NIH Demography of Aging Centers. The site provide information about specific biomarkers and how they are measured.
• Lab Tests Online focuses on providing laboratory test information for patients and can aid researchers in understanding what clinical tests are available, what specimens are collected, and what is measured.
• See the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) website for additional information on logistics and storage of specimens.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention International Laboratory-related Resource and Activity Directory is a resource for laboratory practices, manuals, and standards to promote high-quality laboratory practices.

• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Health and Safety's Web site provides a variety of documents about importation of etiologic agents, biosafety in microbiological and biomedical laboratories, guidelines from the World Health Organization for the safe transport of infectious substances and diagnostic specimens, guidelines for packaging and shipping biomedical materials, and a variety of other information about handling biological specimens.

• The World Health Organization's Infectious Diseases website provides specific disease fact sheets, epidemiology, surveillance, and research and development on numerous infectious diseases.

• The UNC/CPC MEASURE Evaluation project developed the Biological and Clinical Data Collection in Population Surveys in Less Developed Countries: Annotated Bibliography (January 2000). It provides references for selected articles of biological and clinical markers of health and disease, focusing mostly on developing countries.

• The Human Genome Project Web site provides details about the mapping of the human genome and its role in medicine, health, and behavior.

• The National Cancer Institute's Office of Biorepositories and Biospecimen Research provides information about best practices in collection, storage, and use of biospecimens.

Bioethical resources

• The purpose of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission is to provide advice and recommendations to the US National Science and Technology Council and others about bioethical issues related to research on human biology and behavior. Several publications can be downloaded from their Web site related to research involving collection of biological specimens.

• To quote their Web site: "The National Reference Center for Bioethics Literature is a specialized collection of books, journals, newspaper articles, legal materials, regulations, codes, government publications, and other relevant documents concerned with issues in biomedical and professional ethics."

• The National Institutes of Health Bioethics Resources on the Web site provides a number of annotated web links.

• The Code of Federal Regulations covering the Protection of Human Subjects provides the detailed regulations the Institutional Review Boards at UNC must follow.

• The Belmont Report: Ethical Principles and Guidelines for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research should be read by all researchers involving human subjects.

• The Declaration of Helsinki was developed by the World Medical Association as a statement of ethical principles to provide guidance to physicians and other participants in medical research involving human subjects.