Biopreservation is a process that uses various storage techniques to preserve the indigenous functionality and integrity of cells, tissues, and organs in order to use them for both clinical research, as well as regenerative medicine, drug discovery, and in-vitro testing.
Manufacturers are introducing new methods and preservation technologies to keep biosamples viable and stable for longer periods of time, and these new methods are leading to significant market growth in the biopreservation market, which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 17% from 2014-2019.
Harmonization of biobanks will be a key development in biopreservation
Biobanking is by far the biggest application area for biopreservation, and for good reason—these banks give researchers access to a huge amount of biological data, which can help in everything from disease diagnosis to drug discovery.
But standalone banks aren’t enough, and a recent push to harmonize biobanks will be a key issue for the community through the forecast period.
“Initiatives by the biobank community in Europe and the world to harmonize biobank approaches and methodology are aimed at creating visibility and sharing of both samples and data across facilities worldwide,” say lead analysts from Technavio.
A recent article from the European Journal of Human Genetics, entitled Harmonising and linking biomedical and clinical data across disparate data archives to enable integrative cross-biobank research outlines the necessity of creating harmonized biobanks to help pool available resources in order to “improve the power of large-scale studies”.
“Biological resources, such as cells, tissues, or biomolecules, are considered to be the essential raw material for the advancement of biotechnology, human health and for research and development in life sciences,” write the report’s authors.
Making these resources available helps give researchers access to samples such as tissue, blood, serum, DNA, and RNA for diagnosis, biodiversity studies, and other research.
However, creating harmonized biobanks is no easy task, since every biobank has its own internal standards. Additionally, many banks capture information in a local language, which would require translation if this information is going to be easily shared between nations.
In response to these challenges, agencies and consortiums are working toward developing effective best practices for biobanks harmonization, which include improving transparency, technology, and information sharing, which will spur growth in both biobanks as well as biopreservation technology through the forecast period.
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