Failure to invest in biobank ‘may jeopardise storage of vital tissue samples’

The Government’s failure to invest, as promised, in a national biobank could jeopardise the storage of tissue samples vital for research in the development of new patient treatments, medical experts claimed.

It could also jeopardise potential investment by pharmaceutical companies who require access to huge amounts of tissue samples to conduct research.

The importance of preserving tissue samples is illustrated by Eoin Gaffney, medical director of charity Biobank Ireland Trust, who said a friend of his with recurrent cancer, who is now tumour-free, had a treatment based on biobank tissue. “His new treatment, developed from biobank tissue, has melted away his tumours, and his scans are clear. The drug used to treat him was developed five or six years ago using frozen biobank tissue,” he said.