Biomedical science: Betting the bank

[摘要] By storing DNA and blood samples as well as the medical and family history of each volunteer, biobanks provide a tremendous resource from which researchers have been able to extract risk factors for common diseases such as obesity, asthma, depression and heart disease that are deluging the healthcare systems of developed and developing nations. Genomewide association studies and more complex genome interaction analyses have begun to reveal ways in which these diseases might be treated. Beyond probing genes, however, the more ambitious of these biobank projects hope to account for the effects of diet and the environment and even such factors as state of mind. With these interactions becoming cheaper and more realistic to peruse, biobanking efforts have sprung up all over the world.