Overview 

Research has always been a challenging pursuit that demands lots of resources and materials for their advancements. Getting these resources can be a difficult task, however, a solution for that is a ‘Biobank’. Biobanks are ethical platforms that store and provide human and animal biological materials and associated data for scientific and biomedical research.¹

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), biobanks are defined as “a collection of biological material and the associated data and information stored in an organized system, for a population or a large subset of a population”.²

Biobanks play a very important role in advancing medical research as they provide a rich collection and storage of biological material such as blood, tissue, DNA, etc, along with various other information like health records, lifestyle factors, environmental factors, and genetics. These enable the researchers to work on reliable and high-quality specimens. This contributes to various fields of biomedical science like drug discovery, genetics, epidemiology, personalised medications, long-term studies, etc which ultimately results in betterment and improvement in health and biological research.

Types of biobanks

Based on the purpose, sample collection system, and type of biological materials biobanks are generally classified into:

• Disease-Oriented Biobanks
• Population-Based Biobanks
• Tissue Banks

Population-based biobanks

This type of biobank collects and stores materials from volunteers from the general population and focuses on studying various common and complex diseases. They do not usually specify inclusion and exclusion criteria. The main aim of this type of biobank is to study the effect of individual genetic susceptibility and external factors on disease progression by working on the molecular data with other pieces of information like clinical data, laboratory reports, etc.³

Examples of population-based biobanks are the UK Biobank, Danish National Biobank, etc.

Disease-oriented biobanks

In contrast to population-based biobanks, disease-oriented biobanks are designed mainly to study specific disease conditions like cancer, AIDS, etc. These banks will have a storage of large quantities of samples on a particular disease.  These data are integrated and studied on disease pathogenesis(evolution), disease mechanism, therapeutic(treatment) guidelines, and other factors thus providing various research outcomes.³

Tissue banks

This type of biobank includes harvesting, processing, collecting, storing, and transporting human tissue for research and transplantation purposes. Any type of human tissue can be obtained from these tissue banks, such as tissues from the ovaries, fat tissue, and bone cells, providing strong support for clinical and research purposes. These banks play a very important role in cancer and regenerative medicine.⁴

Role of biobanks in medical breakthroughs

Advancing personalised medicine

The European Association for Predictive, Preventive & Personalized Medicine (EPMA) considers biobanks as a vital part of personalised medicine. This is because biobanks contribute to all four aspects of personalized medicine - personalised, preventive, predictive, and participatory by providing critical research opportunities in genetic science, individual digital genomes, and exposure to external factors.⁵ This enables the development of treatments tailored to individual genetic profiles leading to targeted therapies.

Supporting drug development

The field of the pharmaceutical biobank has been growing rapidly in recent days as many pharmaceutical companies are interested in improving research in drug development and testing using genetic material. The resources provided by the biobank will give access to diverse genetic material leading to the discovery of new drugs and supporting the drug development process.¹

 Example: Development of precision medicines for rare diseases.

Facilitating epidemiological studies

Biobanks are reservoirs of biological samples, having a large number of high-quality resources, these resources can be used for large-scale studies, and long-term research projects to understand various epidemiological aspects of disease such as prevalence, risk factors, and public health interventions.

Example: Research on genetic predispositions to chronic diseases.

Vaccine research

Biobanks play an important role in vaccine research as the stored biological samples from biobanks can be used to facilitate research on immunization and infectious diseases. The stored genetic material can be used for genotyping techniques to understand the vaccine-host interaction.

One example of a biobank facilitating vaccine research is ‘Oxford Vaccine Centre Biobank’ and a recent example of vaccine research is ‘COVID-19 vaccine research’.⁶

Challenges and ethical considerations

Although biobanks have a huge impact on biomedical research, they also come with a few challenges and ethical considerations that must be carefully addressed to ensure the proper use of biological data and samples.

Data privacy and security

As the biobanks contain a large set of data on biological samples and every other detail of the donor (volunteer, patient) there arises a concern regarding protecting this personal and genetic data stored. Hence a proper measure should be taken to ensure confidentiality and security of the information. Adopting a strong data-sharing policy, and a privacy protection rule gives a sense of security in the information available. One example of such policy is a Tohoku Medical Megabank (TMM) data-sharing policy found to be effective in tackling security problems in biobanks.⁷

Informed consent

Obtaining the donor's Informed consent is a key component for the biobank which is mandatory for the ethical use of samples, consent should be taken for the collection and use of samples. All the details such as how their sample will be used should be explained properly in the language the patient understands, and a signature on the consent form should be obtained and well documented.⁸

Equity in access

The samples at the biobank shouldn’t be confined to a certain race or category of population. The participants should be from diverse backgrounds of different ages, cultural settings, locations, etc. This improves population representativeness and provides general applicability of research findings which can be used by everyone.⁹

Future prospects of biobank

Integration with advanced technologies

In today's world, the most happening technological development is ‘Artificial Intelligence’. It is possible to integrate AI into the biobanking system to improve its efficiency. Many studies are going on to develop novel ways of using AI in biobanks that contribute to medical research.  One such application is AI in disease detection using data from biobanks. Conditions such as Alzheimer’s, cardiovascular, and chronic diseases can be diagnosed based on risk prediction, AI algorithms, and other features of AI from the biobank database.¹⁰

Global collaboration and data sharing

A new trend in biobank systems called ‘Biobank Networking’ is emerging, this trend will allow the biobanks to collaborate on national and international levels wherein the resources and materials are shared and exchanged this improves the collaborations between the researchers, and also provides the resources to those researchers who need samples from the network outside of their reach. Biobank networking is also found to be effective in promoting advanced molecular biology techniques in translational research by providing large quantities of samples from many platforms via collaboration.¹¹

Impact on public health

Biobanks are believed to be a valuable aid for public health. They contribute to public health by services such as disease prevention, early diagnosis, and improved healthcare systems globally.

Summary

Biobanks are essential platforms in modern medical research, providing stored biological materials such as blood, tissue, and DNA, alongside valuable data like health records. These materials are essential for advancing personalized medicine, drug development, epidemiological studies, and vaccine research. Biobanks are categorized into population-based, disease-oriented, and tissue banks, each serving unique research purposes. Despite their potential, challenges like data privacy, informed consent, and ensuring equitable access need to be addressed. Looking ahead, integrating advanced technologies like AI and fostering global collaboration through biobank networking will enhance their impact on public health and drive further medical breakthroughs.