There are interesting biobanks elsewhere in the world, for example, in Iceland, Estonia, Sweden, and Great Britain. Finland also has a suitable grounding for the development of a broad-based data infrastructure, because samples have been collected within public health care and extensive health-related registers are maintained. Supplementing the complete genetic research capability there is the long history of the national population data system and the previous, reliable church register system.

Professor Esko Ukkonen considers an extensive biobank as a great possibility.

“Diversified information would enhance the building and validation of computer models, which would then help to advance modeling of organisms, diseases, etc. much further than today,” says Ukkonen.

An extensive data warehouse would make it possible to handle different types of data within the same research. However, shared use of several different types of data poses challenges, and according to Ukkonen, method development and collaboration with application specialists will be needed. It also means that the number of computers will have to be increased.

“Large data masses will make it possible to create bigger and more accurate models, which are less flexible to run than before. For this type of research we value CSC’s computing power,” says Ukkonen.

Although in Finland there is a fairly positive attitude to collection and utilization of information for research use, we still have to answer several ethical questions prior to founding this extensive biobank. These include, for example, problems relating to permissions for research use, and owner and user rights.

Katja Liesilinna