Banks, of course, should have a lot of cash and diversified investment portfolios to leverage economic strength.
In medical research, there’s a different kind of bank called a biobank, and it thrives by receiving DNA specimens from patients who volunteer to participate by providing a vial of blood. The more samples that are received, the better the opportunity for researchers to discover advanced, personalized treatment options.
The Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine, a partnership between UCHealth and University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, has now invited patients from UCHealth Parkview to take part in the program.
“The process is simple,” said Jenney Mead, director of laboratory services for UCHealth Parkview. “After enrollment in the (UCHealth) app, the patient’s sample can be collected by Parkview’s outpatient lab as part of patient’s next routine blood draw. The order is electronic, so no paperwork is needed. Parkview will send the sample to the biobank for processing.”
As a research program, there is no cost to the patient for participating or providing a sample, Mead said.
Scientists examine blood samples for research, genetic analysis and clinical care with the goal of tailoring medical care to the specific genetic makeup of patients. It helps researchers draw reliable conclusions about, for example, specific genetic mutations and the health conditions linked to them.
“The biobank results allow a provider to tailor his/her approach to a patient based off the patient’s genetic makeup, rather than selecting the same approach for what statistically works best for a population. This can reduce a lot of trial and error when a patient is prescribed a new medication,” Mead said.
So far, more than 250,000 UCHealth patients have enrolled in the biobank by signing the required consent form. The samples provided are stored in ultra-cold freezers and examined by researchers to gain valuable information about the association between certain genes and the risk of certain diseases, including some types of cancer and cardiovascular conditions. They also can predict how patients will respond to certain medications.
The strength of biobanks is in their numbers. The more people who submit a blood sample, the more opportunity researchers have to discover new, personalized medicines.
“Your sample only needs to be collected one time,” said Mead. “When the biobank identifies opportunities and adds more genes to the database, our participants will receive additional results. As the biobank finds other opportunities for genes related to medical conditions or medications, it pulls existing samples and performs new testing.”
Here’s how to enroll in the biobank
To enroll in the biobank, you must be a UCHealth patient, age 18 or older, and able to consent for yourself.
By signing on to your My Health Connection account, you can access, read and sign the required consent form. If you do not have an account, you can create one.
During your next routine blood draw, an extra vial of blood will be drawn for the biobank.
Although blood is most often collected for the biobank, patients have the option of donating a saliva sample instead.
What is the biobank?
The biobank is essentially a large research study that aims to collect DNA specimens from UCHealth patients who voluntarily agree to participate.
What is the purpose of biobanking?
The fundamental goal is to understand how genetics fits into everyday health. Scientists can learn how patients’ genes are associated with different facets of health, whether that is risk of developing certain conditions, or responses to treatment, or ways to prevent disease.
To do that, biobanks strive to increase the number of specimens in the repository. Doing so enriches the genetic diversity of the specimens. That, in turn, helps researchers and clinicians learn more about the unique characteristics of patients in different racial and ethnic groups, for example.
The biobank may be able to return three types of clinical genetic test results:
- Those that predict your response to medications, which may indicate that you need a higher or lower dose or a different medication
- Those that show you have an increased risk of certain diseases, which may call for more intensive screening and surveillance
- Those that identify you as a “carrier” of certain genetic diseases.
Why is it important to put resources into creating a biobank?
Having a unique, local biobank helps with the practical goal of incorporating genetics into health care. The biobank at the Colorado Center for Personalized Medicine contains samples and genetic information derived from UCHealth patients. That can enrich the knowledge their providers use to treat them.
For example, Hispanics make up about 15% of UCHealth’s patient population. Genetic information from a biobank of patients from, say, the United Kingdom, with a much smaller Hispanic population, would not make an ideal match.
If I want to participate, how do I do it?
The simplest way is to sign in to your My Health Connection account (or create one). Click the UCHealth Research Opportunities button on the main page to read more about the biobank and view the consent form. After reading the form, you can sign it, decline to or elect to decide at a later time.
In sum, what is the benefit of participating in the biobank?
It’s important to be part of research because the more different people who provide samples to the biobank, both in terms of genes and their entire life course, the better scientists can understand how to customize, select and choose with each person how they want to treat disease or manage their health over time.
What are the top 5 reasons to participate in the biobank?
- Help advance science and medical progress.Here are more details on these five reasons.
- For the chance to get clinical results back about your genes.
- Participation in the biobank is easy.
- We can’t do what we do without you…. and thousands of other people.
- Contribute to something greater than yourself.
How will my sample be identified?
As with any sample provided to a laboratory, the blood or saliva collection tubes have some personal details such as your name and date of birth to identify the sample. When the sample is used for research, it is given a unique code and only the biobank can link the code to your personal information.
Researchers outside the biobank will generally not have access to information that can directly identify you, such as your name, address or medical record number. Such information may be required by researchers for certain types of research. This would only happen with permission from the Access to Biobank Committee and the Colorado Multiple Institutional Review Board (COMIRB). COMIRB is an administrative body that protects the rights and welfare of human research subjects.
How is my information in the biobank shared?
By sharing data, we hope to help researchers to conduct more research on health conditions with the goal of finding better treatments. UCHealth will share data on biobank participants with research partners who have the proper approvals. UCHealth will also share some of the genetic data we have generated in databases such as dbGaP, which stands for “Database of Genotypes and Phenotypes” that is sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Data shared with dbGaP is de-identified to remove personal information such as names, addresses and date of birth. UCHealth may also share de-identified data with industry partners, including those who are developing new drugs or treatments.
What protections are in place for my health information and sample?
UCHealth takes the protection of your privacy very seriously. UCHealth follows federal privacy laws and health care regulations to protect your information. Any data shared through our partnerships does not contain personal or identifying information. All information used by the biobank research study will be protected using secure computers and locked files, so that only authorized people can access it.