The National Biobanking Programme A collaboration between SWEGENE and Wallenberg Consortium North THE NATIONAL BIOBANKING PROGRAMME

Use of biobank-based study designs enables minimisation of several major sources of bias in genetic epidemiologic studies and has the potential to resolve major bottlenecks for progress. E.g., case-control studies nested in biobanks can minimise selection biases by enabling inclusion of all eligible cases and controls in the study base. Use of population-based biobanks in combination with case ascertainment using population-based disease registries further ensures population representativeness and minimises risks for biases resulting from incomplete case ascertainment. Use of biobanks with detailed environmental information on the subjects is of special interest, because most common diseases have multiple contributory causes, both genetic and environmental. Both for identification of the many polymorphic genes may interact in pre-disposing for disease and for development of an understanding of disease etiology, complex interactions between genes and environmental factors need to be considered. Past environmental exposures can often only be studied in longitudinal studies where samples and information collected many years ago is available. Finally, the fact that that study design and characterisation of cases and controls (e.g. with regards to clinical phenotype and family history of disease) can be performed even before study hypotheses have been formulated resolves the otherwise very time-consuming bottleneck to assemble new, large and well characterised studies with strong statistical power for each new hypothesis of disease that is formulated.