{"id":13209,"date":"2025-12-10T13:07:56","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T13:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=13209"},"modified":"2025-12-12T09:17:53","modified_gmt":"2025-12-12T09:17:53","slug":"banking-on-breakthroughs-how-the-biobank-ireland-trust-is-helping-shape-irelands-future-in-cancer-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/healthcare-innovations\/banking-on-breakthroughs-how-the-biobank-ireland-trust-is-helping-shape-irelands-future-in-cancer-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Banking on breakthroughs: how the Biobank Ireland Trust is helping shape Ireland\u2019s future in cancer research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"600\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-13210\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2025\/12\/10125827\/vicky-1765371507-Professor-Sean-Hynes-Headshot.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2025\/12\/10125827\/vicky-1765371507-Professor-Sean-Hynes-Headshot.jpg 600w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2025\/12\/10125827\/vicky-1765371507-Professor-Sean-Hynes-Headshot-125x125.jpg 125w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Professor Se\u00e1n Hynes<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Professor in Pathology, Discipline of Pathology, University of Galway<br\/>Consultant Histopathologist, Division of Anatomic Pathology, University Hospital Galway. Board member and Spokesperson of the Biobank Ireland Trust<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Biobanks are the backbone of cancer research and a vital tool in understanding many illnesses, including rare diseases and cancers that need large numbers of samples to gain crucial insights.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/biobankireland.com\/get-involved\/\">Biobanks<\/a> play one of the most important roles in medicine. By providing researchers with carefully curated samples and linking them with anonymised clinical data, biobanks help speed up the development of new tests, new treatments, and more personalised care for today&#8217;s and tomorrow&#8217;s cancer patients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-patient-centred-biobanks\"><strong>Patient-centred biobanks<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>For this to be meaningful, it must be done responsibly. Every sample collected in a biobank is stored and handled with strict quality and ethical standards, including consent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In Ireland, however, <a href=\"https:\/\/biobankireland.com\/get-involved\/\">biobanks<\/a> are spread out across the country, which can make it harder for researchers to access the materials they need. The Biobank Ireland Trust, a charity founded in 2004, aims to change that by connecting these collections into a single, coordinated national network whilst always keeping patient voices at the centre of its work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>These samples are precious, and discoveries that lead to tomorrow\u2019s cures will come from the biobank collections we build today.<a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-collaborative-effort-in-building-tomorrow-s-cures\"><strong>Collaborative effort in building tomorrow\u2019s cures<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>A <a href=\"https:\/\/biobankireland.com\/get-involved\/\">biobank<\/a> is more than a room of freezers. It takes a team of professionals to gather, label, store and look after each sample, whether it\u2019s a small piece of tumour tissue, a blood sample, or medical images. These samples are precious, and discoveries that lead to tomorrow\u2019s cures will come from the biobank collections we build today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Trust is already making real progress. It helps link biobanks across the Island from Biobanc na Gaillimhe and Trinity St James\u2019s Biobank to Cork University Hospital, St Vincent\u2019s University Hospital and the Northern Ireland Biobank. In October, the Trust and Biobanc na Gaillimhe held the first-ever All-Island Biobanking Symposium in Dublin, bringing experts together to focus on technical advances and the patient experience. The Trust is also working with Health Research Charities Ireland and the University of Galway to publish the first national&nbsp;\u2018Biobanking in Ireland\u2019&nbsp;directory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our work is supported by our Biobank Warriors, volunteers who run marathons, compete in triathlons, organise golf events and more to raise vital funds.<\/p>\n\n\n<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><body><div style=\"text-align:center\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-button ab-block-button\"><a href=\"https:\/\/biobankireland.com\/get-involved\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" class=\"ab-button ab-button-shape-rounded ab-button-size-medium fb-pixel\" style=\"color:#ffffff;background-color:#000000\">Click here to learn more<\/a><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n\n\n\n<p><a id=\"_msocom_1\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Biobanks are the backbone of cancer research and a vital tool in understanding many illnesses, including rare diseases and cancers that need large numbers of samples to gain crucial insights. Biobanks play one of the most important roles in medicine. By providing researchers with carefully curated samples and linking them with anonymised clinical data, biobanks &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/healthcare-innovations\/banking-on-breakthroughs-how-the-biobank-ireland-trust-is-helping-shape-irelands-future-in-cancer-research\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":163,"featured_media":13212,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5973],"tags":[5995],"class_list":["post-13209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare-innovations","tag-healthcare-innovations"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2025\/12\/10130630\/vicky-1765371989-GettyImages-1790778296-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2025\/12\/10130630\/vicky-1765371989-GettyImages-1790778296-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Mica Robertson","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/micarobertson\/"},"vicky_category_order":[{"category_id":5973,"order":"4"}],"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13209"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13233,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13209\/revisions\/13233"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}