Banking on Results - Biobanks Maintain Sample Viability

Human biological material has been collected, stored and used for a variety of purposes almost since the dawn of modern medicine. However, the combination of high-throughput molecular genetic analysis and the explosion in computing power makes possible for the first time the mining of this physical medium for data to link human health or disease to molecular characteristics. Enter the Biobank ? a potentially vital resource for identifying the causes and mechanisms of diseases, both hereditary and environmental. Cancer Banks, as the name suggests, are collections of tissue and blood collected from patients where cancer is a possible diagnosis. Given that many research studies are aimed at increasing our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in tumour initiation, metastatis, and response to treatment, the cancer bank holds out the hope of accelerating the development of more effective, targeted treatments through the availability of high-quality patient samples. With the collection of samples starting in January 2005, the Wales Cancer Bank (WCB) was the first population-based collection of tumour and control tissue samples to be established in the UK. A collaborative project involving Higher Education establishments, various NHS Trusts in Wales, funded by the Wales Assembly Government Office of Research and Development, and Cancer Research Wales, the WCB aims to collect voluntary samples from all patients in Wales who undergo an operation to remove tissue where cancer is a possible diagnosis.