Biobanken

Abstract

Biobanks are an important tool of genetic epidemiology, which investigates the role of genetic factors and their interaction with environmental factors (in a broad meaning) for the occurrence of diseases in human populations. Its aim is to understand the influence of genetics on the development of diseases, their course and the clinical implications, with the final goal to improve prevention, diagnostics and therapy. The extraordinary development of genetics in the last decades - with respect to the understanding of the meaning of genes for human health, as well as the availability of cost-effective high throughput methods in the lab, has opened enormous opportunities to study genetic factors. In addition, access to large samples of patients or from the population is needed. This can be realized via biobanks. Large biobanks with 500,000 or more participants are being established or planned in the UK, Japan, Australia, Sweden and the US. However, in Germany only two smaller activities are ongoing, KORA-gen in the south and POPGEN in the north. Possibilities to reach larger numbers for Germany, based on existing cohorts or disease networks, are discussed. For the implementation and use of biobanks, stringent ethical boundary conditions have to be taken into account. The opinion of the German National Ethics Council on Biobanks for Research as well as the new recommendations of the Telematic Platform (TMF), which has been developed in close collaboration with the Data Protection Officers, improve transparency and legal security.