What is FINBB?
Why was FINBB established?
Finnish Biobank Cooperative – FINBB was established in 2017 as part of the implementation of Finnish National Health Sector Growth Strategy to build an internationally high-standard biobank network in Finland. The Strategy is a joint program implemented by three ministries, and it aims for expertise-driven improvement of citizens’ health and well-being, for example, by using the possibilities created by the advancement of science and technology.
FINBB's mission
FINBB's mission is to enhance the competitiveness of Finnish health and biomedical research by providing researchers a centralized access the collections and services of the Finnish biobanks and their background organizations. FINBB's activities create value for its members and owners by providing services at the national level.
FINBB aims to harmonize the common infrastructure, functions and practices of public biobanks. The goal is also an effective cooperation with various centers of expertise, such as the Cancer and Neuroscience Center and the future Genome Center and Drug Development Center.
"Our mission is to build the world's best biobank network in Finland."
Core values
The core values of biobank operations are the protection of the sample donor's privacy and rights, trust, transparency and cooperation, accessibility, people-centeredness, innovativeness and continuous learning.
FINBB's Network
Founding partners
FINBB is a cooperative founded and owned by:
Five wellbeing services counties and HUS
Wellbeing services county of Central Finland, Wellbeing Services County of North Ostrobothnia, Wellbeing services county of North Savo, Wellbeing services county of Pirkanmaa, Wellbeing services county of Southwest Finland, and Helsinki and Uusimaa
Six universities
The state
Biobanks
Member biobanks
FINBB has eight member biobanks:
Six regional hospital biobanks: Auria Biobank, Biobank Borealis of Northern Finland, Central Finland Biobank, Biobank of Eastern Finland, Helsinki Biobank, and Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere
Arctic Biobank at University of Oulu
National-level THL Biobank
Other members of the biobank network
In addition to the FINBB member biobanks, Blood Service Biobank and FHRB Biobank belong the Finnish biobank network. Terveystalo Biobank is a collaborator of the network.
FinnGen research project
FinnGen research project is a unique public-private collaboration that joins the Finnish biobanks together in generating a vast amount of genome data from up to 500,000 (every 10th Finn) biobank samples by 2023. All sample-related genome data generated in the project will return to the originating biobank where it can be combined with deep phenotypic data and be further utilized in subsequent biobank projects.
FINBB has been an official FinnGen partner as of August 2020. One of the main tasks of is the coordination of Fingenious®ecosystem that evolves from the FinnGen program and its results. The goal is to coordinate long-term biomedical research activities by generating FinnGen spin-off studies and to create more business opportunities in Finland.
National coordinator of BBMRI-ERIC
Since January 2020 FINBB has been the national coordinator of the European biobanking research infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC (Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure — European Research Infrastructure Consortium Infrastructure). FINBB was appointed to this role by Ministry of Education and Culture. The Coordinator of the Finnish national node is Marco Hautalahti, CEO of FINBB, and Vice Coordinator is FINBB's Chief Legal Officer Tom Southerington.
All Finnish biobanks are involved in biobank network activities. In addition to the eight FINBB member biobanks, also Blood Service Biobank and FHRB Biobank (The Finnish Hematology Registry and Clinical Biobank) belong the network. Terveystalo Biobank is a close collaborator of the network.
The shared vision of the network is to create a next-generation sustainable biobank network that enables the implementation of individualized and preventive medicine both in Finland and internationally as part of the BBMRI-ERIC infrastructure consortium.