The first version of the Standard PREanalytical Code (SPREC) was developed in 2009 by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) Biospecimen Science Working Group to facilitate documentation and communication of the most important preanalytical quality parameters of different types of biospecimens used for research. This same Working Group has now updated the SPREC to version 2.0, presented here, so that it contains more options to allow for recent technological developments. Existing elements have been fine tuned. An interface to the Biospecimen Reporting for Improved Study Quality (BRISQ) has been defined, and informatics solutions for SPREC implementation have been developed. A glossary with SPREC-related definitions has also been added.

Although natural killer (NK) cells are often described as first line defence against infected or malignant cells which act without the need of prior activation, it is known now that the NK cell activity is tightly regulated by other cells and soluble factors. We show here that the stress-inducible heat shock protein (HSP) 70 activates human NK cells to kill target cells expressing major histocompatibility complex class I chain-related molecule A (MICA) in a natural killer group 2 member D (NKG2D-) dependent manner. The HSP70-derived peptide TKD (TKDNNLLGRFELSG) was able to replace the full-length HSP70 and to exert the same function. Interestingly, the expression of the cytotoxic effector protease granzyme B in NK cells was increased after TKD stimulation. When MICA and MICB expression was induced in human tumour cells by a histone deacetylase inhibitor and NK cells were activated by HSP70 or TKD, both treatments jointly improved the killing of the tumour cells. Thus, the synergistic activity of two stress-inducible immunological danger signals, HSP70 and MICA/B, leads to activation and enhanced cytotoxicity of human NK cells against tumour cells.

Large-scale collaborative research will be a hallmark of future psychiatric genetic research. Ideally, both academic and non-academic institutions should be able to participate in such collaborations to allow for the establishment of very large samples in a straightforward manner. Any such endeavor requires an easy-to-implement information technology (IT) framework. Here we present the requirements for a centralized framework and describe how they can be met through a modular IT toolbox.

The German Association for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy (DGPPN) has committed itself to establish a prospective national cohort of patients with major psychiatric disorders, the so-called DGPPN-Cohort. This project will enable the scientific exploitation of high-quality data and biomaterial from psychiatric patients for research. It will be set up using harmonised data sets and procedures for sample generation and guided by transparent rules for data access and data sharing regarding the central research database. While the main focus lies on biological research, it will be open to all kinds of scientific investigations, including epidemiological, clinical or health-service research.

Future research networks should switch to a service-oriented approach to achieve a sustainable, cost-efficient IT infrastructure.