Network-strucured" model for Irish Biobank:

Plans to establish the Irish Biobank entered a new phase last week, with the first public meeting on the project. Its defining features will be its centrally-managed structure, involving a network of local biobank centres with a "single point of access and methods for research", a spokesperson for the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) told Clinica. The meeting (Dublin, December 3) was hosted by the RCPI and Biobank Ireland, a group of experts convened by the health ministry to develop the project, to raise awareness of its potential in helping to improve cancer care. The speakers included Professor Geraldine Thomas, director of the Wales Cancer Bank, on which the Irish project is being modelled.