William Grizzle, left, accepts his award from Andrew Pazahanick, Vice-President and General Manager of Taylor-Wharton Cryogenics. Taylor-Wharton sponsored the award.William E. Grizzle, M.D., Ph.D., professor in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Pathology and senior scientist at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center, has received the 2015 International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories Award for outstanding achievement in biobanking.
Biobanking is the process by which samples of bodily fluid or tissue are collected for research use to improve understanding of health and disease. Grizzle was recognized for his longstanding contributions to biospecimen research sciences through his extensive studies and publications on issues affecting the quality of tissue samples.
He is a past president of ISBER and has been a voice to the biorepository community. He has presented workshops internationally and has been involved in areas of biospecimen science and science policy.
At UAB, he has been director of the Tissue Collection and Banking Facility since 1983. Since 1987 he has been the principal investigator of the Southern Division of the Cooperative Human Tissue Network. He is committed to facilitating the efficient and cost-effective operation of biorepositories and to an increased focus of biobanks on the distribution of biospecimens.