BioBanks

In the latest The TIME Magazine Annual Special Issue , in the article " 10 ideas that are changing the world Right Now" , idea number eight was "BioBanks". Unlike many of you assuming it to be place to store your organs like kidneys , which obviously can't be done with present technology, for future use or saving money to get a organ translpant in the future, it is basically a research institute. So "Relax --it's not your MONEY they are after. It's your BLOOD" More spooky , I presume.

Well, according to the article -- not at all! Its more like an organic bank account. National Cancer Institute (NCI) are heading up an effort to establish the U.S.'s first national biobank . They aim to store tissue samples, tumor cells, DNA and even blood for the purpose of research for finding new remedies and cures for diseases. By comparing the DNA's of both affected and unaffected people , researchers can track and hunt down that problematic gene profile .

Since you put in your biomaterial, the reward is also in the form of knowledge and therapies that grow out of that deposit -- hence no monetary reward . But the potential benefit from the accumulated data at some later stage, which not only help u but many other affected with the same disease.

However , the key challenges in this idea are ; firstly maintaining account holders' privacy and limited access with individual's consent and secondly, the ease or comfort with which an individual will share its bio-info , like DNA for instance ,with an organization.