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Comprehensive catalog of European biobanks

Nature Biotechnology volume 29, pages 795–797 (2011)Cite this article

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To the Editor:

Biobanks are well-organized resources comprising biological samples and associated information that are accessible to scientific investigation1,2. They have become a key element for research involving human genetic or genomic and proteomic information in conjunction with other personal or health data. There is consensus in the scientific community that progress in understanding disease will depend on the establishment, harmonization and broad use of this information3,4,5,6,7.The large spectrum of existing biobanks has been considered as a specific strength of European research4,6. Their optimal use, however, is constrained by fragmentation, a lack of harmonization, incompleteness and a lack of overview of existing resources1,3.

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Figure 1

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Author information

Author notes

  1. Leena Peltonen: Deceased.

  2. H-Erich Wichmann and Klaus A Kuhn: These authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Epidemiology, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    H-Erich Wichmann & Melanie Waldenberger

  2. Institute of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Munich, Germany

    H-Erich Wichmann & Melanie Waldenberger

  3. Institute of Medical Statistics and Epidemiology, Technische Universität, München, Munich, Germany

    Klaus A Kuhn, Dominik Schmelcher, Sebastian H R Wurst & Gregor Lamla

  4. Institute of Human Genetics, Helmholtz Zentrum München, German Research Center for Environmental Health, Neuherberg, Germany

    Simone Schuffenhauer & Thomas Meitinger

  5. Institute of Human Genetics, Technical University, Munich, Germany

    Thomas Meitinger

  6. Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G), University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Isabel Fortier & Paul R Burton

  7. Département de Médecine Sociale et Préventive, University of Montreal, Montreal, Canada

    Isabel Fortier

  8. Departments of Health Sciences and Genetics, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK

    Paul R Burton

  9. Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland FIMM, Helsinki, Finland

    Leena Peltonen

  10. Department of Medical Genetics, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Leena Peltonen

  11. Public Health Genomics Unit, National Institute for Health and Welfare, Helsinki, Finland

    Leena Peltonen

  12. The Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA

    Leena Peltonen

  13. National Public Health Institute, Helsinki, Finland

    Markus Perola

  14. Estonian Genome Center of University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia

    Andres Metspalu

  15. Department of Pathology, Josephine Nefkens Institute, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands

    Peter Riegman

  16. Department of Genetics and Pathology, University of Uppsala, Uppsala, Sweden

    Ulf Landegren

  17. Babraham Bioscience Technologies, Cambridge, UK

    Michael J Taussig

  18. Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden

    Jan-Eric Litton & Martin N Fransson

  19. Alps Adria University Klagenfurt, Institute for Informatics-Systems, Klagenfurt, Austria

    Johann Eder

  20. Département of Epidemiology, Inserm, Health Economics and Public Health, University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France

    Anne Cambon-Thomsen

  21. Genotoul, Genetics and Society Platform, Toulouse Midi-Pyrénées Genopole, Castanet-Tolosan, France

    Anne Cambon-Thomsen

  22. Legal Pathways Institute for Health and Biolaw, Aerdenhout, The Netherlands

    Jasper Bovenberg

  23. Inserm, Public Health Institute, Paris, France

    Georges Dagher

  24. Department of Human Genetics, Center for Human and Clinical Genetics, Leiden University Medical Center, Leiden, The Netherlands

    Gert-Jan van Ommen

  25. Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Michael Griffith

  26. The University of Manchester, Centre for Integrated Genomic Medical Research, Manchester, UK

    Martin Yuille

  27. Institute of Pathology, Medical University of Graz, Graz, Austria

    Kurt Zatloukal

Authors
  1. H-Erich Wichmann
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  2. Klaus A Kuhn
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  3. Melanie Waldenberger
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  4. Dominik Schmelcher
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  5. Simone Schuffenhauer
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  6. Thomas Meitinger
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  7. Sebastian H R Wurst
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  8. Gregor Lamla
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  9. Isabel Fortier
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  10. Paul R Burton
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  11. Leena Peltonen
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  12. Markus Perola
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  13. Andres Metspalu
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  14. Peter Riegman
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  15. Ulf Landegren
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  16. Michael J Taussig
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  17. Jan-Eric Litton
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  18. Martin N Fransson
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  19. Johann Eder
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  20. Anne Cambon-Thomsen
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  21. Jasper Bovenberg
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  22. Georges Dagher
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  23. Gert-Jan van Ommen
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  24. Michael Griffith
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  25. Martin Yuille
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  26. Kurt Zatloukal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to H-Erich Wichmann.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Text and Figures

Supplementary Figures 1–5 and Supplementary Tables 1–3 (PDF 386 kb)

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Wichmann, HE., Kuhn, K., Waldenberger, M. et al. Comprehensive catalog of European biobanks. Nat Biotechnol 29, 795–797 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1958

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