The National Medical Research Center for Preventive Medicine of Russia (NMRCPM) conducts epidemiological and clinical research for the development of personalized medicine. This is why NMRCPM has faced the problem of how to standardize preanalytical conditions for all biospecimens from various scientific projects and of how to provide long-term responsible standardized regulated safe storage of blood and its derivatives. This article describes various aspects of establishing a biobank in a large medical center dedicated to integrating the biomarkers research activities of different departments. To date, >205,000 serum/plasma/whole blood specimens have been stored. Collaboration with >25 scientific projects as well as the biobank's own research project has been organized. The availability of this biobank became a platform for the establishment of the Personalized Medicine Center in NMRCPM.
Keywords: biobanking; biological specimen banks; biomedical enhancement; genetics; personalized medicine; population characteristics; preventive medicine.