The X National Congress of Biobanks held on October 17 and 18 in Valencia, brought together more than 200 representatives of more than 50 biobanks.

The meeting was organized by the Spanish Biobank Network,  Fundació per al Foment de la Investigació Sanitaria de la Comunitat Valenciana (Fisabio), Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (Ciberes) and the Valencian Biobank Network. They spoke about the contribution of biobanks to the discovery of disease biomarkers and personalized medicine, the added value of their networking work when opening new research opportunities or the importance of having quality clinical information have been addressed associated to the samples as a guarantee to carry out successful translational studies.

Citizen participation in donating samples, new technologies, digital informed consent and ethical and legal challenges related to data protection were also analyzed.

Montserrat Torà, scientific director of MARBiobanc moderated one of the round tables and regarding the need to improve the visibility of biobanks in society, she said: "We must be aware of the importance of residual samples of surgery, endoscopy, biopsy or the blood of the patients in the hospitals are transferred to the biobanks once the diagnostic or treatment processes have been completed. These samples are very useful for science to advance, but to be used in research, it is essential that the patient signs an informed consent ".

This congress has been widely disseminated in the national and local press.