Biobanking is a crucial element of the medical and public health response to COVID-19 and future pandemics, as the storage and distribution of biospecimens and data become a driver of current and future research efforts. Nevertheless, biobanks face a number of ethical, social, and governance challenges during COVID-19 that may require new practices and policies to meet the needs of researchers, donors, and a public eager for research breakthroughs to address the pandemic. This session will explore the ELSI challenges of biobanking during the pandemic, including the creation of new biobanks and the repurposing of existing samples for COVID-19 research. 

In this third monthly ELSI Friday Forum, Aaron Goldenberg, PhD, Associate Professor and Research Director in the Department of Bioethics & Medical Humanities at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine will moderate a discussion with Sara Chandros Hull, PhD, Associate Investigator in the Office of the Clinical Director at the National Human Genome Research Institute and Kyle Brothers, MD, PhD, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville, where he is also affiliated with the Institute for Bioethics, Health Policy, and Law. The discussion is followed by a Q&A with the audience.