This volume is the first comprehensive text on human biobanking, authored by scientists and regulatory officers who have led the field over the past 10 years. It covers biobanking issues and its importance in advancing the field of research in cancer, cardiovascular, metabolic, and other diseases. Biobanks of human specimens have become the cornerstone for research on human health that harnesses the power of "omics" technologies to identify biomarkers for disease susceptibility. Biobanks are an essential component of the development of personalized medicine, which relies on the molecular analysis of biospecimens that are truly representative of individuals and of diseases.  Over the past decade, biobanking has been the focus of major investments and developments aimed at developing appropriate infrastructure, methods, networking practice and evidence-based pre-analytical procedures. This volume explores topics including specimen storage, protocol design, specimen collection, pre-analytical processing and preservation, long-term storage, retrieval and separation, and distribution to analytical laboratory platforms.  These activities are extremely complex and are essential for biomedical and biotechnological developments and this text provides critical information about biobanking for the development of future forms of medicine.¿

.- 1. 20 years of biobanking: dawning or a new era (Volume Editors) .-  SECTION 1: BIOBANKS IN PRACTICE.- 2. Principles of cryo-preservation-Allison Hubel (University of Minnesota).- 3. Biobank design and infrastructure-A. Zaayenga (SmarterLab Inc).- 4. Minimal standards for biobank annotations-H.M. Moore (National Cancer Institute).- 5. Biobank governance and sustainability- M. Pasterk (IPRI, France).- 6. Biobanking in low resource contexts-R. Lawlor (University of Verona).- 7. Biosafety and biosecurity -G. D'Agnolo (Italian National Committee on Biosafety, Biotechnology and Life Sciences).- 8. Quality assurance and quality control in Biobanking- Di Donato (INSERM, France).- 9. Biocomputing for biobanks-P. Fearn (University of Washington).- 10.   Ethical and societal challenges for biobanks-Jane Kay (INSERM, France).- SECTION 2: TYPES OF BIOBANKS.- 11. Disease-oriented biobanks: from pathology archives to personalized medicine-Peter Riegman (Erasmus University).- 12. Biobanking for molecular epidemiology- J.Dillner (Helmoltz, Munich). .- 13. Biobanking for biomarker discovery-  Jim Vaught (National Cancer Institute).- 14.   Biobanking in clinical trials- G. Golfinopoulos (EORTC, Belgium).- 15. Industrial Biobanks-(To Be Defined).  .- SECTION 3: NETWORKING BIOBANKS.- 16. International biobank networks: the P3G experience-I. Fortier (McGill University).- 17. Networking Biobanks throughout Europe- KurtEero Vuorio (INSERM, France).- 18.   Biobanking networks through 5 continents  -R. Hewitt, N.  Zeps.- 19.   Driving international convergence through evidence-based standards (Volume Editors). .- 20. National Networking - the case of Spain- Morente Manuel  (CNIO, Madrid).- SECTION 4: The Future of Biobanking.- 21. Training biobankers for the 21st century-E. Gormally (Fac Catholique, France).- 22.   The Science of Biobanking and biospecimen research- Jim Vaught (National Cancer Institute).- 23.   Economics of Biobanking-Jim Vaught (National Cancer Institute).- 24.   Meeting Tomorrow's Challenges: Biobanking for All (Volume Editors).¿