The Biobank supports the development of medicine by acting as a research infrastructure that enables biomedical and translational research through the provision of long-term access to high-quality biological materials and associated data.
Biobank
Maria Sklodowska-Curie
National Research Institute
of Oncology
W.K. Roentgena 5
02-781 Warsaw, Poland
Building F
The Biobank is an organizational unit of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie National Research Institute of Oncology (NIO-PIB) in Warsaw, established by Ordinance No. 31/2023 of the Director of NIO-PIB dated 1 June 2023.
The primary goal of the NIO-PIB Biobank is biobanking, i.e., the collection, processing, storage, and sharing of biological material and related data. The Biobank stores, among others, samples of blood, serum, plasma, DNA, RNA, and tissue material. They are used in scientific and development research and, with appropriate consent, also for diagnostic purposes.
The Biobank operates in accordance with established procedures, recognized quality standards, and applicable legal regulations. The entire biobanking process is carried out with full respect for the rights of the Patient/Donor, including the right to autonomy, privacy, reliable information, and the right not to know the results of research.
Biological material is collected exclusively from Patients and Donors who have given informed and voluntary consent to biobanking and meet the eligibility criteria. The material is then processed and stored under strictly controlled conditions that ensure its high quality and integrity. The collected material and associated data are made available for precisely defined research projects in the field of medicine and biomedical sciences, approved by the competent bioethics committee.
In this way, every Patient and Donor can have a real impact on the development of scientific research, the creation of new therapies and medicines, and the improvement of modern diagnostic technologies.
The scope of the Biobank's activities includes comprehensive biobanking of various biological materials and their long-term storage under controlled conditions. As part of blood-derived procedures, the Biobank performs biobanking of whole blood, serum, plasma, PBMC, and ctDNA, as well as combined biobanking of PBMC and plasma. The Biobank also secures tissue material – both by cryopreservation and immediate freezing in liquid nitrogen. Sample storage at -80°C and -135°C is available for short-term (1 month) and long-term storage, depending on the needs of research projects.
The Biobank also provides support in handling enquiries about available resources and full administrative support for applications requesting access to biological material. Collaboration with researchers is flexible and tailored to the specific requirements of each project – from planning the type and scope of material, through the selection of appropriate procedures, to implementation and reporting.
In addition, the Biobank can support scientific projects with microscopic assessment, immunohistochemical analyses, and digital image analysis. This enables the integration of high-quality biological material with advanced microscopic and digital evaluation methods, thereby enhancing the scientific value of ongoing projects and facilitating the generation of reliable, reproducible results.
Office hours: Monday–Friday, 7:30 a.m.–4:00 p.m.
Below you will find information for the Patient/Donor regarding the biobanking of biological material, conducted in accordance with applicable ethical and legal principles and quality standards used in biobanking infrastructures.
We explain what biobanking is, what its purpose is, and how the donated biological material and associated data may be used in scientific and translational research, with respect for the rights of the Patient/Donor and data protection principles.
The following documents are available in this section:
