Biobanks are diverse processing and storage facilities that maintain biospecimens. These stored biological materials can be used for drug development and discovery efforts, precision medicine studies, biomarker-based preclinical research, and more. Increasingly, biobanks are also storing stem cell lines, such as induced pluripotent stem cell lines that are being derived from both healthy and diseased donors. Biobanks can also contain cord blood units collected from newborns, as well as associated tissues that may contain stem cell and progenitor cells, such as umbilical cord blood tissue or placental tissue. [Read more…]