A biobank is a physical place which stores biological specimens. In some cases, participant data is also collected and stored. Access policies details may vary across biobanks but generally involve obtaining ethics approval from institutional review boards (IRB) and scientific review or peer review approval from the institutions under which the biobanks operate as well as Ethics approval from the institutions where the research projects will be undertaken. The samples and data are safeguarded so that researchers can use them in experiments deemed adequate. This article contains a list of biobanks.
Classification
Biobanks can be classified in several ways. Some examples of how they can be classified is by their controlling entity (government, commercial enterprise, or private research institution), by their geographical location, or by what sorts of samples they collect.
Biobanks may be classified by purpose or design. Disease-oriented biobanks usually have a hospital affiliation through which they collect samples representing a variety of diseases, perhaps to look for biomarkers affiliated with disease. Population-based biobanks need no particular hospital affiliation because they sample from large numbers of all kinds of people, perhaps to look for biomarkers for disease susceptibility in a general population.
| List of biobanks | ||||||
| Biobank | Affiliation | Focus | Type | Location | Founding | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All of Us | Population | non-profit | United States | |||
| Autism Genetic Resource Exchange | Autism Speaks | Autism | non-profit | North America and Asia | ||
| Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children | University of Bristol | non-profit | United Kingdom | 1990 | ||
| BioBank Graz | Medical University of Graz | non-profit | Austria | |||
| BioBank Japan | RIKEN, University of Tokyo | Population, personalized medicine | non-profit | Japan | 2003 | |
| Canadian Biosample Repository | University of Alberta | non-profit | Canada | |||
| CARTaGENE biobank | Centre hospitalier universitaire Sainte-Justine | non-profit | Quebec | 2009 | ||
| Cooperative Human Tissue Network | Cancer | government | USA | 1987 | ||
| Coriell Institute for Medical Research | Genetic Disorders, rare diseases, Stem Cells | non-profit | United States | 1953 | ||
| DeCODE genetics | commercial | Iceland | ||||
| Estonian Genome Project | University of Tartu | non-profit | Estonia | 2000 | ||
| EuroBioBank | Rare diseases | non-profit | Europe | |||
| FINBB | Population | non-profit | Finland | |||
| FinnGen | Population, disease focused | public-private | Finland | 2017 | ||
| Generation Scotland | NHS Scotland | government | Scotland | 1999 | ||
| Genomics England | Rare diseases, cancer | public-private | England | 2013 | ||
| HUNT Biobank | Norwegian University of Science and Technology | non-profit | Norway | 2002 | ||
| Integrated Biobank of Luxembourg | Luxembourg Institute of Health | Cancer, immunology | Luxembourg | |||
| Interdisziplinäre Biomaterial- und Datenbank Würzburg | University of Würzburg & Universitätsklinikum Würzburg | public agency | Würzburg, Germany | 2013 | ||
| Kaiser Permanente Research Bank | Kaiser Permanente | Population | United States | 2016 | ||
| Lifelines | University of Groningen & University Medical Centre Groningen | Healthy aging | non-profit | Groningen, The Netherlands | 2006 | |
| Million Veterans Project | United States Department of Veterans Affairs | American veterans | non-profit | United States | ||
| MyCode | Geisinger Health System | Electronic health records, personalized medicine | commercial | Pennsylvania, United States | 2007 | |
| nPOD | University of Florida, JDRF | Diabetes | non-profit | United States | 2007 | |
| PATH Biobank | Breast cancer | non-profit | Germany | 2002 | ||
| Plasma Services Group | Autoimmune, Infectious, Coagulation, Diagnostics | commercial | United States | 2017 | ||
| Sapien Biosciences | Apollo Hospitals & Saarum Innovations | Population, with special focus on tailoring treatment for Cancer | private | India (headquartered in Hyderabad) | 2012 | |
| Signature biobank | Research centre of the Montreal Mental Health Institute | Mental health | non-profit | Canada (Quebec) | 2012 | |
| The Malaysian Cohort | National University of Malaysia | non-profit | Malaysia | 2003 | ||
| Tohoku Medical Megabank Project | Tohoku University, Iwate Medical University | Population, Birth and Three-Generation | non-profit | Japan | 2012 | |
| UK Biobank | non-profit | United Kingdom | 2006 | |||
| Biobank Sweden | Health and Social Care Inspectorate | Collaborative biobank infrastructure (nearly 250 biobanks) | government | Sweden | 2017 | |
