After more than three years of planning and study, the European Biobank was officially launched in February at a meeting in Cambridge. Its almost 100 funded participants outlined a strategy to have the legal framework and infrastructure in place by the middle of 2010.

Kurt Zatloukal, who is coordinating the preparations for what is officially called the European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure, said that the European Union has allocated €5m (£3.8m; $7.4m) over the next 27 months for setting up the framework.

In an interview with the BMJ Dr Zatloukal, of the Institute of Pathology at the Medical University of Graz, Austria, said, “By 2011, I think a prototype …