engleski

Emerging biobank in South-Eastern Europe: "10 001 Dalmatians"

Aim: South-Eastern Europe is largely underdeveloped in terms of existing research biobanks. The aim of this study was to describe one such biobank that may serve as the regional hub for future developments. Methods/approach: Over the past ten years we developed a biobank that mainly focuses on isolated populations of the Adriatic islands of Croatia. Over 5, 500 subjects were included, from the islands of Korcula, Vis, Rab, Lastovo, Mljet and Susak, further complemented by over 1000 subjects from the coastal city of Split. Ongoing recruitment scheme is sufficient to include additional 1, 500 subjects over the course of next two years. Results: Various issues were identified in the biobank development, with the most prominent resistance towards the biobank development encountered by the local physicians. The most helpful resurces in the subject recruitment and biobank development were non-governmental organizations and religious community. Local population was mainly very positive towards the resource development, and praised health check- ups and health advice that were offered free of charge. Issues related to genetics were never reported back to the subjects, as was defined by the informed consent. Besides conventional and commonly measured phenotypes, we also introduced a wide range of less common phenotypes, such as smell, taste and pain thresholds, cognitive responsiveness tests and are currently introducing 3-dimensional body and face scanning, alongside cone-beam tomography for dental hard tissue visualisation. Conclusions: The development of biobank in this part of Europe is marked by specific issues and problems, but at the same time promises strong population interest and yields large research gains in terms of publications and research projects. Besides research benefits of the biobank development, we managed to discover several life treating conditions in early stages (severe aortic coarctation, eye melanoma, two urinary bladder cancers), thus producing a direct health benefit for the local population.

biobanks ; biobank development

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