Dr. Marta Castelhano, associate research professor and director of the Cornell Veterinary Biobank, received the 2024 Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking Award from the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).

ISBER is a global biobanking organization that creates opportunities for networking, education, and innovation, connecting biobankers worldwide. The Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking award is designed to recognize individuals who have made outstanding, indisputable contributions to the field of biobanking, including advancements in the science of biobanking, by creating depth of knowledge, demonstrating world-class expertise, and making remarkable discoveries, bringing the field into further prominence.

Castelhano is a member of the Education and Training Committee at ISBER, where she creates educational opportunities for biobankers worldwide, and has contributed to the writing of the 5th edition of the ISBER Best Practices: Recommendations for Repositories. A frequent speaker at biobank conferences and symposiums, Castelhano was invited by the National Institutes of Standards and Technology (NIST) to represent the U.S. position in biobanking as an ISO expert and delegate. With her contribution, ISO 20387: General Requirements for Biobanking was published, the first ISO standard created specifically for biobanks. 

In April 2019, Castelhano led the CVB through third-party conformity assessment by the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation (A2LA) to become the first biobank in the world to receive accreditation to the ISO 20387 standard. Her work is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging (part of the National Institutes of Health – NIH), the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NIH), and Morris Animal Foundation. Castelhano will receive the award at the ISBER Annual Meeting in Melbourne, Australia, in April 2024.  

Read the full ISBER press release here.