Leonardo da Vinci' part of Euro network of biobanks - Italy's first biobank - Leonardo da Vinci - has been created in Florence by genetic pharmaceutical company, FiorGen Foundation.
It is currently the only structure in Italy that has the requisites to become part of the European network of biobanks.
The Florentine biobank contains millions of organic samples urine, blood, plasma, tissue, proteins and DNA which belong to the Careggi hospital.
According to the set of preanalysis protocol rules put in place by researchers, a pathologist archives the data collected on each sample by putting the information onto two servers.
One server is accessible to researchers all over the world through an information network and contains scientific data relative to the sample, as well as the clinical history of the patient as indicated by a specific code.
The other server is private and contains personal data about the patient affiliated with the code. Through the sharing of information, the biobank becomes part of the data exchange for research in the scientific community.
The initiative is sponsored by the Ente Cassa di Risparmio Firenze and the Florence Chamber of Commerce.
Chamber president, Luca Mantellassi, recently commented: "The bank highlights our city as an Italian representative in Europe in the biomedical field. We are trying to make up for the fact that we have been lagging behind for some time.
"Italy only invests 1.1% of its GDP in science and technology compared to 2-3% in northern European countries. We hope that the federal and local governments will support our initiative".
