The charitable trust as a model for genomic biobanks.

Although this brokering has sparked ethical concerns, 2 the role of academic medical centers as suppliers for these private “biobanks” has received little attention. When faced with financial constraints, some academic medical centers have chosen to transfer blood, tissue, and medical information directly to private biobanks in return for access for research and equity. 7,8 These and other novel collaborations may comply with federal rules, but they threaten to exacerbate problems in the existing system of federal oversight. Recent violations of the protection of human subjects at prestigious academic medical centers have brought institutional conflict of interest, the failure of institutional review boards (IRBs), and erosion of trust on the part of study participants into the spotlight, prompting calls for reform. 9-12