It can seem like biobanking is a ‘cold black box’ process. Samples are processed, labeled stored and retrieved. For many involved in biobanking, it is not clear that processing and storing a biospecimen must be based on core scientific principals in order for the biospecimen to be useful for downstream applications. Biobanking also requires in infrastructure: equipment, biospecimen management systems that may include labels, label readers, and information systems for linking important data about the biospecimen with the actual specimen.
