Biobanking Science: Lessons from African Biobanks
With the recent advances in genomic sequencing, proteomics and precision medicine, biobanks are becoming more prevalent around the world. So are large-scale population studies such as the UK Biobank.
H3Africa Project and Biobanks
The Human, Hereditary and Health in Africa (H3Africa)...
Biobanking Science: Patient Attitudes to Precision Medicine Studies
Governments and research organizations around the world are conducting large long-term precision medicine projects to understand how genetic and lifestyle factors cause disease. Longitudinal projects such as the UK Biobank and the Precision Medicine Initiative in the US collect...
Biobanking Science: Biobank Sperm Without Liquid Nitrogen
With gene editing technology such as CRISPR, it is becoming quicker and easier to generate disease models for medical research. Researchers around the world use tens of thousands of different mouse lines. Research institutions can save money and reduce...
Biobanking Science: HIV RNA Stable at -80°C in Biobanks
Biobanks facilitate research by collecting, storing and sharing samples. One of the major concerns that biobanks face is how to best maintain sample quality over long time periods. The AIDS Clinical Trial Group (ACTG) is one of biggest groups...
Biobanking Science: Tackling Antibiotic Resistance
Antibiotic resistance is a major health issue. More than 700,000 people around the world die from antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections every year—23,000 of those are in the United States (1). If we don’t find a solution, the number of deaths...
Biobanking Science: Brainstorm Consortium Finds Genetic Link for Brain Diseases
One of the major benefits of biobanking is the ability to safely collect and store large numbers of biological samples. This allows researchers to generate large datasets to study the genetic cause of various diseases. The Brainstorm Consortium uses...
Biobanking Science: Disease Patterns in UK Biobank Data
The UK Biobank is one of the biggest biobanking projects in the world with samples and data from over 500,000 participants aged 40 to 69 years. UK Biobank participants allow doctors to take repeat physiological measurements such as blood...
Biobanking Science: MicroRNAs As Biomarkers
Scientists around the world are searching for reliable biomarkers to diagnose diseases and track disease progression and patients’ responses to treatment. There has been a lot of excitement about the potential for circulating microRNAs to be biomarkers for a...
Biobanking Science: Using FTA Cards to Preserve Nucleic Acids
Biobanking organizations may use a range of different methods to preserve biological samples including cryopreservation, fixation and paraffin-embedding and FTA cards.
Biobanking Samples by Cryopreservation
Cryopreservation remains the gold standard for long-term biobanking because this method maintains the integrity and biological...
Biobanking Science: Perinatal Cell Therapies
Biobanking is an Integral Part of Cell Therapy
Cell therapy is a rapidly growing medical field with the potential to treat a wide range of human diseases. Cell therapies comprise living cells which presents a unique biobanking challenge. The biological...
