Human Bio banking as a Team and a Networking project

Abstract

In medical research, human bio banking is directed to investigate the genetic, molecular and environmental factors underlying diseases. Population-based bio banking of blood from healthy individuals in large epidemiological cohorts and of biological fluids and tissue specimens both in healthy as well as in diseased subjects constitutes the "core" of biobanks. Population-based biobanks usually explore germline biological traits, whereas biobanks of specimens from diseased subjects aimed to investigate somatic alterations associated to different types of diseases. More in detail, several types of Bio banks exist: 1) Population bio banks, aimed to obtain biomarkers of identity and susceptibility, usually based on the DNA of a large cohort of healthy donor subjects, representative of an ethnic cohort; 2) Disease-oriented bio banks for epidemiology, based on a large sample number, aimed to identify biomarker exposure, usually following a healthy exposed cohort/case-control design. These biobanks study germline DNA or serum markers on the basis of large amounts of specifically designed and collected data; 3) Disease-oriented biobanks (usually tumor banks) aimed to identify disease biomarkers in a collections of samples and their derivates (DNA/RNA/proteins), usually associated to clinical data and / or clinical trials. The amount of clinical data linked to the sample determinates the availability and biological value of the sample. Biobank organization is a complex tool involving logistic infrastructures as well as specifically developed informatics tools and ethical issues.