About RBGB

About us

The Danish Blood Donor Biobank (DBB) collects and stores blood samples from donors who have agreed to participate in the research project, The Danish Blood Donor Study (DBDS). The inventory of the biobank consists of residual blood samples procedurally drawn as a part of donating blood. When a participant is included in the research project, a sample of whole blood is stored, and the DNA is purified for a comprehensive genetic analysis (Infinium® Global Screening Array (GSA), Illumina). An aliquot of plasma is stored at the time of inclusion and every time a participant donates, termed longitudinal samples. The longitudinal samples enable researchers to measure the change in biological markers over time.

The Danish Blood Banks

The blood banks employ a well-trained and motivated staff who handles the daily registration of blood donors, the blood sampling, and the daily management of the blood banks. By using the blood bank infrastructure, the largest health scientific examination of healthy people in Denmark is carried out at a low cost creating a resource for national research in public health, disease etiology, diagnostics and treatment.

Blood Donors Denmark

Blood Donors Denmark is responsible for acknowledging the 180,000 Danish volunteer blood donors. The organization is built around voluntarism and has 500 volunteer staff members working to secure a stable blood supply in Denmark alongside the five regional blood banks. For more information: bloddonor.dk

Organisation

The Danish Cancer Biobank is a clinical biobank organized in six biobank centers located in Herlev, Næstved, Odense, the National Hospital, Aalborg, and Aarhus. The biobank centers coordinate the regional biobank tasks and responsibilities: contact with the biospecimen collection departments, contact with researchers, biospecimen registration, freezer storage tasks, and biospecimen transfers and distribution.

Clinical Data Sources

Dansk CancerBiobank har sit eget landsdækkende registreringsmodul. Modulet er koblet op på Patologi og Genetik Databank PGDB, så indsamlede vævsprøver kan fremsøges med diagnostiske data. Desuden er der forbindelse til CPR-registret og den relevante cancergruppe under Danske Multidisciplinære Cancer Grupper (DMCG)

Background

In “Cancer Plan 2” (2005) an infrastructure for clinical cancer research was recommended, which in 2007 led to the Ministry of Interior and Health establishing an infrastructure fund. Also, in 2007 a number of pathology and clinical biochemical departments collaborated on an application which led to the establishment of the Danish Cancer Biobank. In the Danish Cancer Biobank there is a national collection of biospecimen primarily for research but also to supplement Patobank with frozen biospecimens. From 2010 all Danish Regions became active as contributors of this collection. The Danish Cancer Biobank receives annual grants from the Danish Regions to cover their expenses running the biobank.

Since February 2022, the Danish Derma Biobank (DDeB) has been collecting samples from patients with inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis, atopic dermatitis, and contact dermatitis for long-term storage.

The research project BIOSKIN makes use of the Danish Derma Biobank. The aim of the BIOSKIN project is to increase understanding of how inflammatory skin diseases develop over time – with the goal of improving patient care through both prevention and personalized medicine. The research team at the Dermato-Allergic Department, Herlev-Gentofte Hospital, collects data through clinical studies, including skin and blood samples from a total of 1,000 patients in each disease group.

Recruitment takes place primarily among patients referred to the department, but also through patient associations and general practitioners. Patients participating in BIOSKIN via the Danish Derma Biobank are followed for a minimum of five years.

Read more about the project at www.bioskin.dk.

Going forward, the ambition is to further develop the biobank by involving additional research projects. DDeB is not a national biobank at present, but as part of its ongoing development, it is a goal to establish a Scientific Advisory Board for the biobank.

The Danish Diabetes Biobank (DDB) is part of RBGB’s national infrastructure, which supports clinical biobanks for research purposes. The biobank contributes to advancing Danish diabetes research and enhancing opportunities for improved patient care.

The Danish Diabetes Biobank currently supports 8 research projects, and efforts are continuously being made to expand this number. In this way, the biobank ensures an ongoing contribution to important Danish research and creates value for future patient care.

The Danish Endocrinological Biobank (DEB) has been established as part of the RBGB infrastructure with the aim of strengthening and supporting research in endocrinology.

Currently, DEB houses samples from the LightCOM project, which includes three clinical intervention studies, one of which involves national sample collection. The project also has an international perspective, collaborating with research groups in the United Kingdom. Read more about LightCOM at their website.

With the establishment of the Danish Endocrinological Biobank, a solid foundation is created for clinical studies and future research projects in endocrinology, with the ambition that the biobank can develop into a central resource for both national and international collaborations.

The Danish Research Biobank (DFB) was established to support research projects that are not conducted for clinical purposes. The biobank therefore houses biological material collected in connection with a specific health science research project approved by VEK.

The DFB currently supports 9 research projects.

It should be noted that there are costs associated with sample collection within the RBGB infrastructure for projects in the Danish Research Biobank. The price depends on the number of centers and local departments involved and is determined individually for each project.

For further information and guidance, please contact the RBGB Secretariat.

In 2020, Danish Regions decided to expand the national biobank infrastructure with a biobank for genetic samples: the Danish Genetic Biobank (DGB).

The purpose of the biobank is to create a unified infrastructure for registering and tracking samples used for genetic analyses – primarily DNA and RNA extracted in molecular biology laboratories. An additional goal is to establish a nationwide registry of samples used for genetic analyses across Denmark.

To ensure scientific guidance, a Scientific Advisory Board has been established for DGB, with representation from the six clinical genetics departments in the country.

The RBGB Secretariat provides ongoing support and guidance to the departments, and in the future, the RBGB registry will offer a national overview of samples used for genetic counseling in Denmark.

In Denmark, at least 75,000 people live with rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, or spondyloarthritis, and another 25,000 live with connective tissue diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus and Sjögren’s syndrome. These conditions are chronic, inflammatory, and autoimmune – and can cause severe joint pain, reduced mobility, and complications such as cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, and infections. For many patients, the disease therefore leads to both reduced quality of life and shortened life expectancy.

Although biological treatments have significantly improved outcomes for patients with chronic rheumatic diseases since 2000, these therapies are very costly, accounting for around 1 billion DKK of public healthcare spending each year. At the same time, 30–40% of new patients experience no effect or suffer side effects from the treatment, and up to half lose its effectiveness over time. As a result, approximately 1,000 Danish patients each year receive expensive but ineffective medication, which has major health as well as economic consequences. This highlights a pressing need for better tools to predict treatment response and to tailor therapy to the individual patient.

To support this development, the nationwide research and quality database DANBIO was established in 2000. Today, it contains clinical data on more than 80,000 patients with inflammatory arthritis – information that is systematically collected across all rheumatology departments in Denmark.

The Danish Rheumatologic Biobank (DRB) was established on January 1, 2015, with support from the Danish Rheumatism Association and Danish Regions. The first blood sample was collected on May 4 that same year. Samples are collected locally and require close collaboration between rheumatology departments, clinical biochemistry units, and the teams responsible for blood sampling.

The biobank’s biological material is linked with the extensive, high-quality clinical data from DANBIO. Together, this creates a unique framework for Danish research in personalized medicine – with the potential both to enable earlier diagnosis and to tailor treatment to each individual patient.

To date, 35 research projects and collaborations have been conducted based on the Danish Rheumatologic Biobank, both nationally and locally.

The Danish Rheumatologic Biobank thus contributes to advancing new knowledge, improving treatment, and promoting a more sustainable use of healthcare resources in Denmark.

In January 2021, Danish Regions implemented new guidelines for the Danish cervical cancer screening program. The guidelines mark a paradigm shift in cervical cancer prevention, introducing molecular screening for human papillomavirus (HPV).

Screening samples were previously stored as fixed cytological preparations, but HPV screening requires the storage of liquid-based gynecological cell samples. To support HPV screening and enable quality control, audits, and reassessment of samples at the patient level, the Danish Screening Biobank (DScB) was established.

The purposes of DScB are:

To enable confirmatory HPV tests and additional high-quality analyses in connection with audits following a diagnosis of cervical cancer.

To ensure sufficient material for ongoing quality assurance (QA/QC) of the screening program.

To enable analyses related to the patient pathway.

In the longer term, the biobank is also intended to support technological advances in HPV screening, as well as the development of new methods that can enhance the secondary prevention of cervical cancer. The goal is to enable a shift from mass screening to more individualized screening.

An important recent development is the introduction of HPV self-testing. Whereas screening samples have primarily been collected by clinicians over the past 50 years, new molecular technologies now make it possible for women to collect the sample themselves at home and send it for analysis to a central laboratory. Since 2023, HPV self-testing has been offered to women who do not respond to the standard screening invitation. However, there are still no internationally established biobank protocols for this type of sample, as they are prepared in a lysis medium rather than a fixation medium. DScB will therefore work purposefully to establish best practice for biobanking of HPV self-samples, ensuring that all women receive consistent quality in screening – whether the sample is collected by a clinician or through self-testing.

In 2021, it was decided that all material used for whole genome sequencing (WGS) at the National Genome Center (NGC) must be stored and registered as part of the RBGB infrastructure. To support this purpose, the clinical biobank Danish Whole Genome Biobank (DWB) was established

After sequencing, the material is sent to Herlev Hospital for long-term storage, along with the associated data, which are registered in the RBGB database.

The Danish Eye Biobank (DØB) was established as part of the RBGB infrastructure in 2022. The purpose of the Danish Eye Biobank is:

• To ensure systematic registration and storage of clinical eye samples, preserving them for future research.
• To create visibility and accessibility of the material through RBGB, so that it can benefit other researchers in the future.
• To support projects ranging from completed studies to ongoing and future research initiatives.

The Danish Eye Biobank is thus being established as a new, specialized biobank with the potential to become a central resource for research on eye diseases in Denmark.