How clinical biobanks can support precision medicine: from standardized preprocessing to treatment guidance

Introduction: Precision medicine aims for improving the efficiency of individual therapies. This requires that the attending physicians have access to reliable data also within the research context. Clinical biobanks are capable of obtaining and processing high-quality samples and data under standardized conditions, ensuring ethics and data protection, and providing the physician with research results. Areas covered: This article describes the functions and responsibilities of biobanks within clinical everyday life and shows how biobanks as bridging infrastructures facilitate individualized therapies. The literature search was carried out using PubMed with the keywords listed below. Expert opinion: The increasing work density and task complexity of the clinical staff are among the greatest challenges to advance precision medicine. Health-care decisions will increasingly be made in expert translational units like the molecular tumor board. Clinical biobanks, as an interdisciplinary interface between treating physicians, bioinformaticians, pathologists and medical scientists, bundle critical tasks in the precision medicine workflow and facilitate stratified information exchange. However, this can only be achieved by the increased visibility of biobanks in hospitals and public, as well as through financial sustainability. Particularly biobanks with a certified/accredited structure, guaranteeing standardized workflows, will be able to close the gap between translational research and clinical practice.