KBN PORTAL

Korea Biobank

Biobanks as the core infrastructure for public health and medicine of the future

The Korea Biobank Project was launched in 2008 to establish a network of biobanks that would systemically collect and manage human bioresources at the national level and distribute them to researchers, with the aim of increasing research competitiveness in the domestic health and medical sectors. The first phase of the project (2008-2012) was carried out until 2012 in order to successfully accomplish ‘the acquisition of the human bioresources of 500,000 Korean’s, while the second phase of the project (2013-2015) aims to activate and promote the use of health and medicine R&D step-by-step.

Since 2016, the collection of panel resources by disease has been increased by operating disease-centered biobanks according to the national vision of “biobanks as the core infrastructure of future health and medicine”. The ongoing third phase of the project (2016-2020) aims to expand the distribution (of human bioresources to the healthcare and medical industry.