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0:00
Hi, everyone. I'm
Elvira Mambetisaeva,
a lecturer at the Division of Biosciences
at University College, London.
Welcome to this lecture
on the introduction to
biobanks and their role
in biomedical research.
0:16
The aim of this lecture is to give
you an overview of biobanking
and to discuss how
biobanks are supporting
and advancing
biomedical research.
I will give you examples
of different types of
biobanks and I will mention
studies in different
areas of biomedical
science that have been
possible to do using samples
and data from biobanks.
0:38
Biobanks or biorepositories
are facilities,
we also call them
research repositories,
that collect process,
store, annotate and analyse
specimens mainly for research.
While biological sample
collections from
other living organisms can
also be called biobanks,
many researchers prefer
to use the term biobank
only for facilities that collect
human biological samples.
However, in the literature you
will find out that both terms,
biobank and biorepository,
are used interchangeably.
In this lecture, I
will be focusing
on human-derived
biological samples.
1:19
Biobanks consist of
two different parts.
The first part is the biological
material that is collected,
processed and stored
for a long time.
The second part is
the information
that is associated with
each biological sample.
Biobanking is required
in the recruitment
of donors of biological samples.
Biobanks collect samples
from healthy people and
all people with certain diseases
and medical conditions.
Biospecimen types that
are available include:
organ tissue, blood,
saliva, urine,
DNA and RNA extracted
from different tissues,
biopsies from tumours,
different body fluids
and other human tissues.
Each sample is registered in
the computer-based
system and kept
in the appropriate
condition to preserve it.
The physical location
of the specific sample
is also registered to
enable the specimen to be
easily located when
they are required to be
distributed to scientists for
their approved
research projects.
Researchers gather
molecular data
from human biospecimens
to gain greater insight
into the genetic and
molecular basis of diseases.
To provide the context
for biological samples,
