Onkológia 1/2023

Establishment of systemic biobank infrastructure in Slovakia

Biobanks are fundamental and essential pillars of high-quality biomedical research and development. Besides harmonization and normalization of the procedures, biobanks also focus on mutual collaboration and interconnection with all other stakeholders from the field of the science, medicine and pharmacy. They ensure increased research quality, reproducibility of the results and better accessibility of the modern and effective therapy in terms of the personalized medicine. Until recently, Slovakia had been one of the last countries without systemic biobanking and relevant infrastructure. This article is the first part of a series on biobanking, which will be gradually published in the journal Onkológia. It presents the basic aspects of the biobanking and describes the implementation of the structural fund projects BIOFORD and DIGIBIOBANKA.

Keywords: depository, peronalised medicine, ELSI, ISO 20387, BIOFORD, DIGIBIOBANKA