Biobanking for 'Omics' in psychiatry: Logistical and ethical aspects

Abstract

Biobanks are highly specialized repositories for both biospecimens and associated demographic or clinical data. They have become a crucial component of big data research in all fields of medicine, in particular as regards genomic approaches. However, biobanking faces several non-trivial logistical and ethical questions, with the majority of logistical and conceptual issues arising from the ethical challenges.