Abstract
Although biobanks are vital for modern medical research, serious concerns have been raised about the legal basis and framework of such endeavours. This led the German ‘Telematics Platform for Medical Research Networks’ (‘Telematikplattform für Medizinische Forschungsnetze’, TMF) to initiate a project in 2004 that was designed to place German biobanks on a sound legal footing. This project involved the planning, writing and evaluation of an expert report that addresses in great detail the legal issues concerning property rights, medical professional regulations, general liability insurance, resource continuity and research secrecy. Here, we provide a brief summary of the major results of this project.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Regina Becker (Brussels), Michael Hummel (Berlin), Peter Ihle (Köln), Michael Kiehntopf (Jena) and Klaus Pommerening (Mainz) for helpful discussion and continuous input into the project. The support and encouragement by Eva Sellge, Sebastian Semler and all staff at TMF are gratefully acknowledged. This study was partly supported by the German Ministry of Science and Education (‘BMBF’) through an NGFN SMP-GEM grant to MK (01GS0426).
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Simon, J., Paslack, R., Robienski, J. et al. A legal framework for biobanking: the German experience. Eur J Hum Genet 15, 528–532 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201810
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.ejhg.5201810
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