This document discusses biobanking, which involves the organized collection and storage of human biological samples and associated data for use in research and personalized medicine. It defines biobanks and biorepositories, describes the types of samples and data collected, and explains the processes of collection, storage, and distribution. Biobanks help support research on disease biomarkers, drug development, and treatment. Challenges include ethical issues around consent and privacy, as well as ensuring quality standards and governance. The growth of biobanking has been crucial for advances in personalized medicine.

1. Biobanking
Dr Rajiv Paul
DNB trainee
Surgical oncology

3. What is a Biobank?
• Defined by many authors, institutions, societies and
organizations in many different ways.
• Organized collections and storage of human biological samples
and associated data of great significance for research and
personalized medicine.
---BBMRI-European Commission (EC) in 2015

4. • Biobank consists of three groups of distinct information.
1. Biological human sample(Biospecimen);
2. Attached or connected information;
3. The legal issues like consent and patient/individual data
safety and protection.

5. Biospecimen
Blood, plasma, serum, RBC, white cells, DNA, RNA, protein, cell
lines, fluid, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, synovial fluid, amniotic fluid
buffy coat, bone marrow stem cells and tissues(freshly frozen or
FFPE).

6. Biobank vs Biorepository
• Biorepository is a biological
materials repository that
collects, processes, stores, and
distributes biospecimens to
support future scientific
investigation.
• Biorepositories can contain or
manage specimens from
animals, including humans,
and many other living
organisms.
• A biobank is a type
of biorepository that stores
human biological samples for
use in research.

7. What is biobanking?
• Process of collecting, processing, handling, storing, and eventually
distributing and sharing of samples and their associated data with
researchers accessing the biobank.

9. Process of biobanking

10. History of biobanking
• The first time the term
“biobank” appeared in the
literature was 1996.
• But only about 10 years later the
number of papers containing the
terms biobank or biobanking
increased significantly.

11. • Two developments in life science encouraged the creation of
“industrial size” biobanks currently in place.
1. Understanding of genomic information and genetic
mechanisms in diseases,
2. Developments in IT sector and bioinformatics.

12. Who are the donors?
• Patient at the hospital or a volunteer.
• Sometimes, biobank collections are driven by
researchers’ needs or population based research.
• Samples and information are labelled with unique
identifiers.
• Samples are divided into separate aliquots.

13. Storage
• Samples are stored in a way appropriate for
the sample material and the intended
research purpose.
• Blood, plasma, serum, and DNA are stored
in -80°C freezers.
• Tissues and cell lines are preserved in liquid
nitrogen freezers at -1960 C.

14. Types of Biobanks
• Human biobank classification is based on:
1. Tissue type (tumor tissue, cells, blood, DNA or RNA );
2. Purpose/intended use (research, forensics, transplantation, source
for therapeutics, e.g., umbilical blood, stem cell biobanks for
individual or community use, or diagnostics);
3. Ownership (academic and research institutions, hospitals,
biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies or government run)

16. • Currently, the generally accepted classification comes from the
pan-European Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research
Infrastructure (BBMRI)-
1. Population-based biobanks - focused on the study of
development of common, complex diseases over time
2. Disease oriented biobanks -biobanks of tissue samples and
clinical data also referred to as disease oriented or clinical
biobanks.

17. Disease-specific biobanks
• Collect pathological tissue samples and information from patients
suffering from a specific disease, for example, breast cancer or
prostate cancer.
• Greater impact on the research on discovery of bio-markers,
targeted drug development and research on treatment of diseases
or cancers

19. Biobank networking
• Seamless interaction and data sharing between the biobanks
internationally .
• Increase in statistical power and sample size.
• One of the largest biobanking networks in Europe is the

20. Utilities of a biobank
• Therapeutic work-
• Bone allografts used in spinal fusion surgery
• Tendon allografts for knee ligament
replacement
• Heart valves for treatment of congenital
heart defect in children
• Viable and non-viable skin dressing for burn
patients
• Hematopoetic stem cells and marrow used to
replace bone marrow.
• Sperms in fertility preservation.
• RESEARCH WORK
• Disease based
research
• Population based
epidemiological
research

21. Benefits of Biobanking?

22. Biobanking in personalized medicine
• Era of personalized medicine.
• Natural evolution of medicine

31. No consensual agreement on this ethical issues ..
• the traceability of the person(Coded/encrypted/anonymous),
• the possible anticipated secondary use of samples,
• the risk implications of the research on the individual and
• the type of consent at the time of collection.(Blanket or
limited)

32. Governance of Biobanking
Ethical regulations for consent type and privacy protection,
Sample management and access to samples and data,
 Standard and best practice guidelines that are used in the
biobanking process,
Quality and database management, and
 Funding management.

35. Biobanks in India
1.Brain Biobank,NIMHANS,Bangalore.
2.Tata Memorial Hospital Tissue Bank
3.Narayana Hrudayalaya Tissue Bank
and Stem cell research centre

36. Conclusion
• Biobanks are complex systems of systematically programmed
storage of human material and associated data.
• In the past 20 years the science of biobanks has became an
integral part of personalized medicine .
• A great number of biobanks have been established all over the
world to support the dramatic development in diseases
prevention, prediction, diagnosis and treatment.

37. Thank you