Of the many different clinical innovations that have been made over the course of the past few decades, biobanking is perhaps one of the most instrumental and fastest-growing. This key implement in the field of translational medicine is steadily becoming more popular: nearly two-thirds of biobanking facilities were established in the last 10 years, and American biobanks alone are estimated to contain more than 500 million tissue samples. As this technique grows in regard, researchers have begun using its methods, as well as new laboratory management software, to study different conditions and diseases that might not originally have viewed as applicable. One example of this is a new study from health care company Kaiser Permanente, which plans to gather genetic material from 5,000 member families to study autism spectrum disorders.
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