In This Issue 1 Feature: Ethical Issues Associated

A biobank is an organized collection of human biological samples and associated data [1]. Biobanks come in many shapes and sizes: some are small and may be disease-specific while others contain samples from a large population base. While recognized as an important research tool, biobanks are also associated with ethical challenges [2-5]. In this short article I will describe some ethical issues associated with biobanks and highlight some relevant guidelines from the updated Tri-Council Policy Statement (TCPS2). Informed consent in the research context allows individuals to exercise control over the potential use of any donated tissue [2]. Research partici-pants must be told the aims and methods of the research, anticipated benefits and risks, and have the right to withdraw without penalty [6]. However, the application of informed consent to biobank research is not straight forward; research that will be performed using a sample is often not known at the time of donation. Rather than obtaining permission each time a new experiment is proposed, many biobanks require broad or blanket consent in which participants consent to a broad range of possible research activities. Others have suggested alternative consent models such as the authorization model, which allows individuals to specify the future uses of their samples and the degree to which they want to be involved in future decision-making at the time of donation [7]