A new survey reveals that 68% of patients are willing to donate tissue and fluid samples to biorepositories. The way researchers frame the request for a donation, however, absolutely matters. The aforementioned patients are eager to donate when they are asked — simply and without any details — whether they would like to. Additional information about how exactly the tissue will be used can color patients' decision, and sometimes even change their minds altogether.
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California Introduces DNA Privacy Bill
Today, biobanking is an extremely common and valued aspect of medical research, considered vital to translational research products and medical innovation. Because of this, companies and organizations around the world now not only operate their own biobanks, but also invest a significant amount of effort increasing the size of their freezer inventory. The statistics show that these efforts have paid off: in 2000, the number of tissue samples in American biobanks alone was estimated to be more than 300 million, and is increasing by 20 million a year. However, a popular method of collecting these samples is now raising controversy about the ways we accumulate and manage this biological data.
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