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What drives us

Our world-class research infrastructure offers accessible and streamlined access to over 460,000 cancer biospecimens and a rich repository of associated clinical data. We also offer bespoke prospective collections and specimen services for clinical trials.

This invaluable biobanking infrastructure is made possible through the joint effort of the VCB consortium, as well as donations from almost 40,000 Victorians. Their generosity has supported over 300 academic and commercial research projects, resulting in over 300 highly impactful scientific publications and a number of successful commercialisations.

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Victorian Cancer Biobank Achievements

Researcher

Project establishment process

Our team will work with you for all your research project needs.
Research lab

Clinical trial support

Biobanking and biospecimen related services for supporting clinical trials and other studies.

Our impact

The VCB has been instrumental in empowering researchers and facilitating ground breaking scientific discoveries.

Consortium Members

The VCB Consortium

Connecting the expertise of major tissue banks across Melbourne

Led by Cancer Council Victoria, the VCB consortium is comprised of five leading health agencies including Austin Health, Eastern Health, Melbourne Health, Monash Health and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Together we form one of the largest open-access cancer biobanks in Australia.

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Our biospecimen archive

Our extensive collection of biospecimens has been generously donated by Victorians willing to contribute to cancer research. Explore our interactive data to gain a real-time snapshot into our inventory and understand the broad range of cancer and specimen types available within our archive. Click the 3 dots for more graph options. 

 

Quotes

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The VCB is a critical infrastructure that provides vital resources for researchers to improve cancer outcomes, and we’re proud to support their pioneering work to change and save lives – it’s innovations like these that demonstrate why the Victorian Government’s investment in medical research is so critically important.

Honorary Ben Carroll, Minister for Medical Research

Victorian Government

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The support provided by the VCB, which included recruitment and provision of high-quality blood samples from donor participants, was instrumental for the foundational biomarker discovery and development work that we undertook at CSIRO, which has been critical for commercial success.

Dr Kim Fung, Principal Research Scientist

CSIRO

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The support provided by the VCB, its staff, and its network of hospitals, and in particular the generosity of its sample donors, have all been critical in enabling the great progress that our company has made in developing a new, simple, blood-based diagnostic test for the early detection of colorectal cancer and our other target cancers.”

Dr Trevor Lockett, Technical Director

Rhythm Biosciences

Latest news Browse all

Media Release: 40,000 Victorians donate vital blood and tissue samples for lifesaving cancer research

Friday 12 April 2024
More donations are needed to help drive cancer research. 40,000 Victorians have generously provided much-needed blood and tissue samples for lifesaving cancer research.

VCB Impacts in 2023 and New website

Thursday 14 December 2023
The Victorian Cancer Biobank (VCB) has achieved above and beyond on impacting cancer research this year. We are also excited to announce the launch of our newly redesigned website.

MEDIA RELEASE: Victorian Cancer Biobank recognised for lifesaving contributions to cancer research

Monday 30 October 2023
The Victorian Cancer Biobank, one of the country’s leading biomedical research infrastructures, has been selected as a finalist of the Melbourne Awards on Knowledge and Innovation for its ongoing contributions to biotechnological developments and groundbreaking cancer research.

The Victorian Cancer Biobank through the Cancer Council Victoria as Lead Agency is supported by the Victorian Government through the Victorian Cancer Agency, a business unit of the Department of Health.

RAP Victorian Cancer Biobank would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we live and work. We would also like to pay respect to the elders past and present and extend that respect to all other Aboriginal people.

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Consortium members

Cancer Council Victoria Austin Health Eastern Health Monash Health Peter Mac Royal Melbourne Hospital

Supported by

VCA