The patient-biobank duo

A collection unique in Europe

Nearly 200,000 biological samples of donor-recipient pairs collected between July 2012 and December 2021 and managed by transplant units and biological resources centers.

Created historically to improve patient follow-up, biobanks and Biological Resource Centers (BRC) are today the vital links of medical research. In practice, the biobanks contain thousands of patient biological samples: blood, tissue, cells, DNA, RNA, tumors… Gathered in hospitals for research purposes, these samples are transformed, enriched with important medical data, then anonymized (as required by ethical standards and the patient’s written informed consent) and preciously stored at low temperature.

Once processed and referenced, the BRC entrust scientists and clinicians with this resource to lead their research programs. By means of new genetic, software and imaging tools, they will be able to improve our knowledge of the disease, identify vulnerable patient populations, improve the use of existing drugs or develop new treatments adjusted to each patient’s profile.

The result of the active involvement of patients and their donors, the collection created and developed by 28 BRCs and all the French transplant units, have brought together at the end of 2021 almost 200,000 biological samples of HSCT complications. It is the driving force of CRYOSTEM.