Background: Over the last 15 years, an estimated 3000 large centralized biobanks have been established worldwide, making important contributions to the further development of precision medicine. In many cases, these biobanks are affiliated with pathological institutes or work closely with them.
Objective: In which translational research projects, and during which phases in the development of new drugs are human bioprobes being used and can their use be easily traced in the literature?
Methods: PubMed, Internet research, and information from the German Biobank Alliance and the European initiative BBMRI-ERIC.
Results: High-quality biosamples from centralized biobanks are increasingly used in clinical research and development projects. Success stories, where bioprobes have contributed to the further development of precision medicine, are shown in this paper using among others the example of RET gene fusion discovery in lung cancer. Interestingly enough, many key publications in the field of precision medicine do not contain exact references to the biobanks involved.
Conclusions: The importance of centralized biobanks in translational research and clinical development is constantly increasing. However, in order to ensure the acceptance and visibility of biobanks, their participation in success stories of biomedical progress must be systematically documented and published.
Keywords: Biological specimen banks; Lung neoplasms; Precision medicine; Proto-oncogenes; Translational medical research.