Victoria Lawson

Project Officer Bio Banking

I will be investigating what the general public think about biobanks and particularly how they would prefer their samples to be used. I’ll be doing this by first of all looking what else has been published in this area and then by conducting some new research to follow this up, using both surveys and focus group. The overall aim of the project is to develop ways of increasing the effectiveness of tissue sample provision to increase the probability of drug development success.

My background is in health psychology, both as a researcher and in a clinical setting with patients. I have worked for a range of academic and voluntary sector organisations including University College London, the Manic Depression Fellowship and Breast Cancer Care. Alongside my biobanking role at GAUK, which is part time, I am currently running a research trial at UCL of a lifestyle intervention for patients who have recently completed treatment for bowel cancer.

I am very much looking forward to working on this project as biobanking is an exciting area which has huge potential. However, it also very complex and for it to provide the most benefit to there are a number of both practical and ethical issues that need to be understood.

Email: victoria@geneticalliance.org.uk