In the latest podcast episode of the German Biobank Node (GBN), Dr. Stefanie Houwaart, patient representative at the BRCA Network and member of the GBN Scientific Advisory Board, is our guest. She provides insights into patients' expectations of biobanks and explains why strengthening academic biobanks is of particular importance to them. The focus is on the question of how biobanks can advance medical research and what role patients can play in this. She emphasises: “It is important to link the samples with clinical data, to ensure the quality of the samples for, ultimately, the development of effective, safe therapies and to release them for truly patient-relevant reserach questions.”
In the interview, Stefanie Houwaart also explains her motivation for working on the position paper recently published jointly by GBN and patient organisations. This paper advocates greater participation of patients in biomedical research projects and the sustainable promotion of academic biobanks (‘Strengthening academic biobanks and patient participation for biomedical research’ – more information here).
The podcast episode is available in German. You can find an English transcript here.