Biobank expands at Rigshospitalet

In future, researchers will have access to biological samples from patients who have received treatment at a hospital within the Capital Region of Denmark.

The Capital Region of Denmark’s biobank is now officially established as an expansion of Rigshospitalet's biobank, which has been collecting samples from patients at Rigshospitalet for three years. The expansion will enhance the offer of easy and standardised access to biological samples for use in research, e.g. into the the significance of hereditary factors in diseases.
 
Rigshospitalet has already collected samples from a total of 50,000 patients, around 17,000 samples annually, and it is expected that around 50,000 samples will be collected annually after the expansion. This will offer researchers a unique opportunity to test theories on genetic variation and to connect the results to other registered data in order to look for possible cause-and-effect relationships.
 
Denmark provides excellent conditions for a rational exploitation of biobanks for research purposes. When analysing the biological material, using existing Danish registers, researchers can couple tissue information to unique data about the individual patient from which the tissue was taken, without compromising the patient’s rights. These databases are available for researchers to use and will be helpful in drawing up a more complete picture of the patient groups’ profile coupled with the DNA profile, without any major cost of knowledge build-up.
 
Contact details:
Henrik Ullum, PhD, MD, head of the Biobank section at the Capital Region of Denmark.
henrik.ullum@rh.regionh.dk
 
Erik Sørensen, PhD, Biologist, project manager at the Capital Region of Denmark’s biobank
erik.soerensen@rh.regionh.dk