Journal Article

Biobanking in health care: evolution and future directions

Baselice, Simona, Cianflone, Alessandra, Messina, Francesco, Soricelli, Andrea, Coppola, Luigi, Grimaldi, Anna Maria, Bevilacqua, Paolo, Salvatore, Marco, Mirabelli, Peppino, Incoronato, Mariarosaria

2019

Overview

Background The aim of the present review is to discuss how the promising field of biobanking can support health care research strategies. As the concept has evolved over time, biobanks have grown from simple biological sample repositories to complex and dynamic units belonging to large infrastructure networks, such as the Pan-European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI). Biobanks were established to support scientific knowledge. Different professional figures with varied expertise collaborate to obtain and collect biological and clinical data from human subjects. At same time biobanks preserve the human and legal rights of each person that offers biomaterial for research. Methods A literature review was conducted in April 2019 from the online database PubMed, accessed through the Bibliosan platform. Four primary topics related to biobanking will be discussed: (i) evolution, (ii) bioethical issues, (iii) organization, and (iv) imaging. Results Most biobanks were founded as local units to support specific research projects, so they evolved in a decentralized manner. The consequence is an urgent needing for procedure harmonization regarding sample collection, processing, and storage. Considering the involvement of biomaterials obtained from human beings, different ethical issues such as the informed consent model, sample ownership, veto rights, and biobank sustainability are debated. In the face of these methodological and ethical challenges, international organizations such as BBMRI play a key role in supporting biobanking activities. Finally, a unique development is the creation of imaging biobanks that support the translation of imaging biomarkers (identified using a radiomic approach) into clinical practice by ensuring standardization of data acquisition and analysis, accredited technical validation, and transparent sharing of biological and clinical data. Conclusion Modern biobanks permit large-scale analysis for individuation of specific diseases biomarkers starting from biological or digital material (i.e., bioimages) with well-annotated clinical and biological data. These features are essential for improving personalized medical approaches, where effective biomarker identification is a critical step for disease diagnosis and prognosis.

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Big Data / Biobank / Biobanking / Bioethics / Biological markers / Biological products / Biological Specimen Banks - ethics / Biomarkers / Biomaterials / Biomedical and Life Sciences / Biomedicine / Blood Specimen Collection / Computational modelling and Epidemiology / Data acquisition / Data collection / Data-driven Clinical Decision Processes / Databases as Topic / Delivery of Health Care / Deoxyribonucleic acid / DNA / Ethics / Forecasts and trends / Genetic research / Genomics / Health aspects / Human samples / Humans / Imaging biobank / Informed consent / Infrastructure (Economics) / International organizations / Literature reviews / Lung cancer / Medical imaging / Medical research / Medicine/Public Health / Personalized medicine / Precision medicine / Public health / Radiomics / Review / Standardization / Sustainable development