In order to provide effective and personalized healthcare, high quality human biological samples are needed to advance in the biomedical knowledge. The CNIO Biobank is a service platform that provides the scientific community with access to human body specimens, and associated clinical information, necessary to foster patient-sensitive research, increasing biomedical awareness and promoting the development of new techniques and biomarkers.  All this allows the strategic development of research institutions and centres, respecting at all times the legal and ethical precepts, with a special focus on protecting the rights of donors.

CNIO Biobank has historically played a crucial role in the harmonisation of the Spanish biobank landscape, working with the regulatory agents and government officials for creating a common framework for the management of human samples for research, hence encouraging collaboration. In this line,CNIO biobank coordinated the first network of tumour banks at European level,and the national network of Biobanks, promoted by the Carlos III Institute of Health (2009-2017). Currently, it coordinates the Biobank Hub, within the ISCiii Biobanks and Biomodels Platform; and its Scientific Director, Eva Ortega-Paíno, is the Spain National Node’s Scientific Coordinator at the European biobank infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC).

The Biobank unit is integrated at the CNIO, a Spanish public institution dedicated to the research, diagnosis and treatment of cancer, and affiliated to the Carlos III Institute of Health (Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities). It is one of the 10 leading cancer research centres in the world (Scimago Institutions Rankings World Report; Nature Index) and covers the entire R&D and Innovation spectrum, from basic research to the clinic, with a view to transferring the results quickly and efficiently to the National Health System and to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology market.