Biobank Sweden’s online course on applying for access to biobank samples for clinical trials and performance studies is now available in English. The English version is intended to make it easier for international sponsors and other stakeholders to understand the Swedish process when applying for access to biobank samples. Following changes to EU regulations governing […]
Read more
In a new video from Biobank Sweden, citizens can learn more about biobank samples. The video explains why samples are stored, how they are used in healthcare and research, and why they are important. The Swedish Biobank Act (2023:38) protects both samples and donors and emphasizes the importance of providing information to anyone who provide […]
Read more
To simplify the process of applying for biobank samples while reducing the number of forms and documents, Biobank Sweden is looking to digitalize the entire application process. We have met with Hanna Fransson, Product Owner of SBR (the Swedish Biobank Registry), who is leading the work of digitalizing the biobank applications. Hello Hanna! How is […]
Read more
The guide “Sample handling in national studies” is now available for download. The guide contains a schematic overview of important steps for studies wishing to collect biobank samples from multiple locations around Sweden. Biobank Sweden’s Sample Service Coordinators have well-established networks and are familiar with the procedures and services, as well as sample and data […]
Read more
Biobank Sweden has secured project funding through Swelife to ensure a continued development of the successful model ‘healthcare integrated biobanking’. The project which will go on until 2026, aims to increase the efficiency of the national model and thereby strengthening medical research while also contributing to equal care and health benefits in Sweden. Healthcare integrated […]
Read more
Patient and next-of-kin involvement is too often treated as a necessary evil or a box to be casually ticked, rather than a central, value-creating activity. In this report, we have built on established frameworks and toolkits and drawn on the documented experiences of collaboration between patients, next of kin, research and healthcare.
Read more
The Swedish principle for multicentre studies involving biobank samples, came to an end in July due to the new Swedish Biobank Act. The multicentre principle was originally developed by Biobank Sweden to match the requirements in the former Swedish Biobank Act (2002:297). In 2003, when the first Swedish Biobank Act came into force, the national […]
Read more
Thanks to a unique collaboration with the Swedish regions and the National Pandemic Center (NPC) at Karolinska Institutet, Biobank Sweden is launching a national COVID-19 sample collection for research. With a new national application process, the purpose is to foster research related to COVID-19 through easier access to samples stored at the NPC. Many samples […]
Read more
The national infrastructure Biobank Sweden is currently working on a nation-wide implementation of the new Swedish Biobank Act which comes into force on July 1, 2023. As a way of increasing the understanding of the new regulation, Biobank Sweden has produced an unofficial English translation of the new Biobank Act available for download. Sweden will […]
Read more
This bibliometric report is based on data from the period 2016–2020 and summerizes for example; number of quotations, study design and number of co-authors among 13 Swedish research projects. Data in the report is presented in a way to simplify and enable easier comparisons to other national and international cohorts and research infrastructures. The purpose […]
Read more
The first Nordic Biobank Conference was organized in Gothenburg and can in hindsight be seen as an important first step on the way towards a joint future for Nordic biobanks. Focusing on current trends and challenges, the main take-away from the conference was the importance of continued collaboration among the Nordic countries. Five hundred stakeholders from […]
Read more
Biobank Sweden has in dialogue with 15 medical research projects created this digital brochure, with the purpose of highlighting cohorts with samples and make it easier for researchers to find possible collaborations.
Read more
Inflammatory bowel disease, IBD, is a serious illness that affects thousands of people in Sweden. Jonas Halfvarsson leads a research project that will develop more personalized treatments for IBD. The research is conducted in close collaboration with healthcare, and has already resulted in new treatments. In Sweden, about 3,000 individuals are diagnosed with IBD every […]
Read more
Medical research is a cornerstone in enabling healthcare to offer better treatments. Everything from flu to cancer. But there is another group playing an important role in the process of developing new drugs or treatments: the patients. Eskil Degsell is a patient relative representative at Karolinska University Hospital and on the patient side in numerous […]
Read more
Gastric cancer is one of the most common cancers and the third most common cause of cancer deaths. Every year, around 1,000 new cases are discovered in Sweden. In more than half of the cases, an infection with the bacterium Helicobacter pylori is behind the disease. By following people who get stomach cancer, researchers are […]
Read more
People’s living conditions and psychosocial situation affect the risk of having a heart attack. Differences in income have particularly large effects in today’s Sweden. Margareta Kristensson has demonstrated this through her research and hopes this knowledge will have an increasing impact on both politics and healthcare. In 1992, more and more people were wondering about […]
Read more
Anders Ståhlberg works on developing new ways to detect cancer with the help of blood and urine samples. The samples are easy to take and can be collected by a nurse, rather than the patient having to go through expensive MRI or X-ray examinations. He conducts his research in close collaboration with healthcare to help […]
Read more
Autoimmune diseases are a major issue. They affect many in the form of, for instance, type 1 diabetes, gluten intolerance (celiac disease), rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis (MS). It is possible that narcolepsy is also that type of disease. There are big gaps in the knowledge about autoimmunity, both about which diseases are autoimmune and […]
Read more
In Sweden, there are several large population-based sample collections – cohorts – that have been collected in whole or in part by specific researchers or research groups. In a cohort, people can be followed over time. This is of great value and enables researchers to study various health effects and risk factors in humans. In […]
Read more
It is thanks to samples from biobanks that Tove Fall can investigate what changes when a person goes from being healthy to getting diabetes or cardiovascular disease. Biobanks provide researchers with new tools for obtaining information on how diseases can be prevented and treated. – When we collect a sample from a sick person, it’s […]
Read more
