Salut authorizes the operation of the Parc Taulí Biobank as a platform for biomedical research

The Department of Health has recently authorized the operation of the Parc Taulí Biobank as a platform at the service of research and available to all researchers who need it and wish to use it. This platform was defined and organized during 2019, thanks to the close collaboration between the Parc Taulí Research and Innovation Institute (I3PT) and various healthcare services, but it was pending its formal authorization.

The Biobank is a platform dedicated to collecting, processing and storing biological samples, in order to be able to transfer them for research under all the quality, legal and ethical guarantees established by the existing regulations and laws in relation to this matter. The samples will be available to both I3PT's own and external researchers.

Until now, researchers at Parc Taulí who required samples for their research had to obtain them by asking their own patients, with their own informed consent, and collecting and storing them in their own or rented freezers. Now, it will be the Biobank itself that will process and store the samples of those patients who have signed an informed consent so that they can be used for research purposes.

The Parc Taulí Biobank begins its activity in two branches: as a tissue bank and as a fluid bank.

• El tissue bank it does not have a physical structure, but takes advantage of the entire structure of the Pathological Anatomy Service of the institution, which retains all the tissues of patients for diagnosis, both paraffin and frozen, whenever required by a researcher.
• El fluid bank (blood, plasma, serum…) works prospectively: when a researcher is interested in a specific type of sample, and it is not available, the researcher is in charge of recruiting patients, but it is the Biobank that takes care of processing the samples, and storing them. These samples become the property of the Biobank, which may transfer them to any internal or external researcher, although it will always ensure the needs of the researcher who has promoted the collection.

The coordinator of Scientific Platforms and the Parc Taulí Biobank, Néstor Albiñana, emphasizes that the advantage of the Biobank is the quality and traceability system established for the samples: “The Biobank provides not only legal and ethics to all the samples to be able to take advantage of them better, but also a guarantee of quality of the own sample and his traceability ”. Now, the launch of this platform is expected to be a stimulus to continue promoting biomedical research in Parc Taulí.