title: Chinese biobanks: present and future.
abstract: As the demands of scientific research and application for specimens increase rapidly, biobanks in China have been springing up over the recent years. This paper summarizes Chinese biobanks through investigation and survey on operative, managerial, ethical conditions and challenges of biobanks. At present, hospitals and research institutes in China set up and operate most of the biobanks, collecting human specimens to support clinical and scientific research. With the development of bio-industry and arrival of the big data era, biobanks need not only collect and store human and non-human specimens but also to manage the big data associated with these specimens.
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Le
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Chuan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Xian
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Qiyuan
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Qian
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Zhixiang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Yan
authors.affiliation: China National Genebank, BGI-Shenzhen, Shenzhen 518083, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
mesh_terms: D018070:Biological Specimen Banks; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000941:ethics / Q000379:methods* / Q000639:trends; D002681:China; D016678:Genome; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA