AUSTRALASIAN BIOSPECIMEN NETWORK ASSOCIATION

ABNA is committed to providing an opportunity for individuals who have an interest in biospecimen banking and biorepositories to share information and their experience. Our membership currently includes biobankers from right across Australia and New Zealand, spanning human disease, zoological and agricultural biobanks. We aim to support and promote best practice biobanking in Australasia.

ABNA serves the biobanking community, research community and the general public and is managed by a committee structure elected by the membership.

AIMS OF THE ASSOCIATION

SUPPORT: Supporting new and emerging biobanks through protocol sharing and collegiate support.

BIOSPECIMEN ACCESS: Promoting biobanks throughout Australia and New Zealand to ensure high quality biospecimens are provided to support high quality research.

NETWORKING: Networking co-operatively and collaboratively with funding bodies and regulators to promote the interests of biobanking. ABNA is an affiliated member of ISBER.

MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE

The Management Committee is responsible for the business and affairs of the Association. The Management Committee compromises up to 6 Ordinary Members and the Office Bearer positions:

President

Vice President

Treasurer/s

Secretary

Digital Media Officer/s

2025 NEWCASTLE CONFERENCE ORGANISING COMMITTEE

                         Georget Reaiche-Miller           Louise Ludlow

                         Chris Gorman                          Cassandra Griffin

                         Anusha Hettiaratchi               Catherine Kennedy

                         Ussha Pillai                              Carmel Quinn

                         Helen Tsimiklis                         Leanne Wallace

SUB-COMMITTEES

CONFERENCE ORGANISING COMMITTEE

The Conference Organising Committee is responsible for planning all aspects of ABNA's annual conference. This committee includes ABNA members from the conference city who volunteer for this role as well as members of the current Management Committee. The Conference Organising Committee is chaired by the ABNA President and reports to the Management Committee.

SEMINAR SERIES ORGANISING COMMITTEE

The Seminar Series Organising Committee is responsible for planning the theme and speakers for each seminar. This committee comprises members of the Management Committee and is chaired by the ABNA President. 

ABNA EXCHANGE COMMITTEE

The ABNA Exchange Committee is responsible for the content of the monthly newsletter, ABNA Exchange. This committee comprises of members from the Management Committee and includes the ABNA Editor.

WEBSITE & DATA INTEGRATION COMMITTEE

This committee comprises ABNA Management Committee members and reports back to the full Management Committee.

MEMBER BENEFITS

All financial ABNA members qualify for reduced registration fees for the annual conference and are eligible to vote during the ABNA Annual General Meeting.

Members receive ABNA's monthly newsletter, ABNA Exchange, notification of biobanking jobs and the ability to advertise their own vacancies. All member biobanks are listed on ABNAs website along with a link to their biobanks website, with the option to add their available samples on the ABNA Specimen Locator. Members are eligible to join Special Interest Groups to build relationships and collaborate with likeminded biospecimen scientists and biobankers within their field/sub-discipline. ABNA also provides an annual seminar series and keeps members up to date on national and international biobanking events and initiatives.

Click HERE to join ABNA

MEMBERSHIP OPTIONS

INDIVIDUAL MEMBERSHIP

ABNA membership fees are payable in advance on or before 1 July each year. Membership renewals can be paid up until 1 August each year for the following financial year, after August 1 the Initial Joining Fee will re-apply.

INSTITUTE MEMBERSHIP

Institute memberships allow 3, 4, 5 or 6 conference registrations at the Member rate, and 3-6 designated staff from the institute will be eligible for ABNA member benefits including a vote at the ABNA Annual General Meeting.

All members of the institute are encouraged to provide contact details to receive communications from ABNA.

Click HERE for more information on ABNA membership