What is a Biobank?

The aim of a biobank is to enable a reliable way of sharing and storing data between different instances which may be local, national, or in some cases international. A biobank is a professionally and systematically maintained and administered collection of human tissue samples. Samples in a biobank are associated with various amounts of clinical and genetic data. The samples and their associated data are available for medical research according to predetermined principles and rules, which are largely dictated by the current local biobank legislation.

An important consideration when setting up a biobank is data security, and the different roles of users, and what data they are allowed to access. Many international biobank projects exist to ensure the quality of sample and data management in biobanks, as well as to provide the opportunity for more efficient sharing of both samples and the research data. In Europe the BBMRI (Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) project is one of the first and biggest such projects, funded by the EC.