UAntwerp and UZA to store six million samples in Antwerp Biobank

Wednesday 18 December saw the official inauguration of the Antwerp Biobank, a joint UZA/UAntwerp project. The biobank is invaluable in terms of scientific research and medical progress. The brand-new Antwerp Biobank processes and stores a wide range of high-quality human bodily material. This may be what's known as residual material, which is any bodily material that remains after a diagnostic examination or medical procedure, but most samples have been prospectively collected for research purposes. In these cases, doctors ask their patients whether they would be willing to donate extra blood samples or other bodily material to science. "The hospital's Ethics Committee monitors the correct use of this material," explains Johnny Van der Straeten, CEO of UZA. "Thanks to our partnerships, we also receive bodily material from other parts of the country, and even from elsewhere in the world." Respecting patients' privacy The samples in the Biobank are only kept and used for scientific research.