Future Plans for Biobanks, Including the Korea Biobank Network (KBN)
Due to the increased demands on qualified biospecimens for research, the number of biobanks has significantly increased recently. By virtue of the advancements in bioinformatics and biotechnology, storing biospecimens and data on a large scale requires that biobanks harmonize biobank processes and regulations [5].
Most biobanks did their best to secure more biospecimens at the inception of the foundation and comparably distribution rate for the researchers is low. According to a first survey of 456 biobank managers in the United States, nearly 70% of those questioned were concerned with underuse of the samples in their repositories [31]. Therefore, many biobankers are trying to advertise their biospecimens to researchers in regional academic societies. Like the United States, the NBK has faced a similar situation for the underuse of biospecimens stored in the biobank. In the first phase of the KBP (2008-2012), biobanks concentrated on securing facilities, such as storage equipment, as well as securing manpower and funding for biobanks. However, in the second phase (2013-2015), more R&D projects are needed that support clinicians, so that it will be possible to gather resources with more information.
For maximizing the value of biospecimens, consistency in the methods by which they are retrieved, processed, stored, and transported is important. Ideally, this should involve the use of agreed SOPs in general [32]. The other issue in the next big step is automated biobanking, and today's biobanks demand and move toward automated sample management systems that meet the requirements for reliability, sample integrity, high capacity, and high throughput.
Horn, the former director of the Genetic Alliance, demonstrates that biobanks have to cooperate together to achieve their mission, and standardization is going to be important for researchers to get samples from different collections; we need catalogs that say where these samples exist [33]. Accreditation processes can also be introduced to biobanks for harmonizing collections and encouraging use of biospecimens in the biobanks, including the KBN. The NBK is also preparing an online distribution portal for the convenient application of distribution to researchers and preparing a biobank accreditation program; these will harmonize the biobanks in Korea.