Basque Biobank

Basque Biobank

The Basque Biobank is a hospital-related platform aimed at promoting basic/clinical research that may lead to the development of tools for the prevention, diagnosis and discovery of therapeutic targets.

The Basque Biobank, which has a network structure that also involves all Osakidetza health centres, the Basque government's Department of Health and Onkologikoa, is operated by the Basque Foundation for Health Innovation and Research-BIOEF. As well as allowing all procedures to be standardised, this network-type organisation makes it easier to trace and follow-up patients at all the main hospitals in the Basque health system. Furthermore, after informed consent is obtained, it allows samples to be obtained from the same patient and information concerning the various diseases that they may suffer throughout their lives to be collated in order to perform longitudinal and correlative studies for various diseases, lifestyles and environmental effects even though the patient may have attended different hospitals or different departments within the same hospital.

The Biobank collects populational, case-control and cohort samples from:

• peripheral blood: DNA, RNA, plasma, serum, cells and other fluids such as cerebrospinal fluid, saliva or tears.
• Tumour tissues: healthy and neoplastic.
• Other tissues obtained from autopsies:
• neurological: neurological material (Brain Bank)
• Other tissues

Likewise, the Basque Biobank collects samples from a broad range of diseases, such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, metabolic disorders, respiratory diseases, cancer, neuromuscular diseases, mental illnesses and rare diseases, amongst others.