Biobanking is the practice of collecting biological and medical data for research purpose; in fact, more than 50% of biobanks identify their reason for existence as research on a specific disease. The popularity of biobanking has exploded in the last 15 years or so, and there is a genuine need for it. Although the number of tissue samples in U.S. biobanks has been increasing by about 20 million since the year 2000, almost half the cancer researchers asked in a recent survey said they had trouble finding samples of acceptable quality for their research.
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Study Finds Americans Are Extremely Willing to Provide Biological Samples
The term “biobanking” refers to the process of collecting, storing and distributing human biological materials, such as blood, plasma, saliva, purified DNA and other specimens. These materials are a vital part of a field called translational medicine, in which biological samples are studied to hopefully yield information that can be translated into treatments. Translational research depends on properly preserved samples, making freezer software and laboratory sample management software important to many biobanks. However, obtaining and storing high-quality samples for this freezer software to use is not as straightforward as many researchers think.
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