Biobanks and scientists: Supply and demand

Abstract

The biobanks, providers of biospecimens, and the scientists, users of biological material, are both strategic actors in translational medicine but the communication about those two subjects seems to be delicate. Recently, biobank managers from US and Europe stressed the danger of underuse of biospecimens stored in their biobanks thus stimulating the debate about innovative ways to collect samples and to communicate their availability. We hypothesize that the already stored collections meet the interest of present scientists only in specific situations. Serial biospecimens from patients with large associated clinical data concerning voluptuary habits, environmental exposure, anthropomorphic information are needed to meet the even more specific projects the scientists are planning. The hypothesis of activation of specific sections in ranked journals aimed to facilitate the communication between partners interested in finding/collecting ad hoc biospecimens is discussed.