The Minimum Information About BIobank data Sharing (MIABIS) aims to standardise data elements used to describe biobanks, research on samples and associated data. The MIABIS biobank terminology work at different levels of granularity to support interoperability between biobanks sharing their data. General attributes to describe biobanks, sample collections and studies at an aggregated/metadata level are defined in MIABIS Core 2.0 (Merino-Martinez et al., 2016). New MIABIS component to describe samples and sample donors at the individual level have been approved by BBMRI-ERIC and are described here (Eklund et al., 2020).

The work on the MIABIS terminology work follows the new MIABIS governance model introduced by BBMRI-ERIC in 2016. The new governance model divides the MIABIS definition work into focused components, with each component having an initial predefined scope which is based on given use cases. The finalised MIABIS components and their entities will be approved by the BBMRI-ERIC Management Committee. MIABIS components are developed by working groups with volunteer participants from different BBMRI-ERIC National Nodes as well as interested domain experts.

More information on MIABIS, i.e., the attribute tables can be found at MIABIS GitHub.MIABIS is constantly being updated:

•  If you want to join the work, please send an email to: miabis@lists.bbmri-eric.eu
•   If you have any issues, you would like the MIABIS team to consider, please submit them as an issue in the MIABIS GitHub page.

MIABIS Core

MIABIS Core represents the minimum information required to initiate collaboration with biobanks and to enable the exchange of biological samples and data. The aim is to facilitate the re-use of biological resources and associated data by harmonising biobanking and biomedical research attributes. The attributes are defined in accordance with epidemiological literature and terminology.  MIABIS Core 3.0 has been developed with 32 attributes describing Biobanks, Collections, Research Resources and Networks according to a modular structure that makes it easier to adhere to and to extend the terminology.

MIABIS Core consists of four main entities: “Biobank”, “Collection”, “Research Resource” and “Network”.

Additional aggregate-level components have been prepared for Imaging (DICOM-MIABIS) and for SOP’s.

Data describing image collections (Scapicchio et al., 2021)

Data describing SOPs (in preparation)

MIABIS Individual-level components

The MIABIS Core terminology consists of three entities describing biobanks, sample collections, and studies, where information on samples and sample donors is provided in an aggregated form. However, there is also a need to describe samples and sample donors at an individual level to enable more sophisticated queries. Therefore, the MIABIS terminology has been extended to include components describing information on samples, donors, and events in a more specific manner. Data describing Sample, Sample Donor and Event v1.0 (Eklund et al., 2020).

Additional components (under active development)

• Data describing dataset type
• Data describing biobank capabilities

MIABIS Entity-Relationship Diagram

The MIABIS Entity-Relationship Diagram represents relationships between different MIABIS components and entities included in those components.