Rohit Shishodia
Doctors and have emphasized expansion of bio bank services in the health facilities across India for efficient research and treatment. They have focused on better management of bio banks. These views were expressed in the two-day Bio Banking International Symposium at Institute of Liver and Biliary Sciences (ILBS), Delhi.

Biobanks are a type of biorepository that store biological samples for use in research. The banks also ensure better storage of samples, including blood and organs, so that they can be used in future.

Speaking at the Symposium, Dr SK Sarin, Director, ILBS, said: "Bio banking requires vigilant and clearly thinking technicians and managers. Every patient’s sample I have to sign if I am the director. The clinician has to sign not the nurse not the technician. So having that kind of rigor and knowledge is required for management of bio banks."

Dr Sarin said India, a land of enormous genetic, geographical, cultural and linguistic diversity, has population of over a billion and has high burden of diseases.  It is perhaps the single most interesting country to study genomic, transnational medicine and some of the biggest projects in terms of personalized medicine on human samples can only be possible in India, he explained.

“The existence of heterogeneous pattern of disease, owing to diverse ethnicity, makes this country treasure trove of research materials. However, a lack of resourceful bio banks, awareness among research population and clinicians, slacken the pace of research,” added Dr Sarin.

He further said that the goal of this meeting is to make aware to the research community about bio banking sciences, to involve more hospitals and research institutes by the model of decentralization to the centralization of hugely impactful bio material. "I believe that having a creative and capable biobank could propel immensely the translation medicine," added Dr Sarin.

Dr Birendra Kumar Yadav from National Liver Disease Biobank, ILBS, Delhi, told DTMT that bio banks are more developed in developed countries but there are more opportunities for research which is why pharmaceutical companies from all over the world are looking towards India because we have more diversified demography, cultural diversity, land diversity and food diversity.

“For personalized treatment there is requirement of good quality samples because when the quality of sample will be good, treatment of patient will be good. So the biobank is needed for research and healthcare of the patient,” he added.