Biobanking

Biobanks store large quantities of biological material such as DNA, blood or tissue samples together with background information on the donors or organisms. In the human/medical field, a basic distinction is made between population-based and disease-specific biobanks. The former are set up for mostly large-scale population studies and samples are usually collected from healthy individuals. The latter are biobanks typical of hospitals, where samples are collected from diseased individuals for diagnosis, therapy and research. They thus allow a meaningful comparison of different individuals with regard to their genetic material, their different diseases, their disease courses and, for example, the influence of environmental factors. On this basis, they enable disease-related genome research, which provides new knowledge about the development and course of diseases and can lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches or more effective methods of prevention.