A biobank is a type of biorepository that stores human samples and biological data for use in research and clinical practice.
For a proper biobank setup, including samples and clinical data collection on a select cohort of subject , practical feasibility and compliance tests are needed. Costs related to this part of the project have been used for the purchase of an ultrasound system configured to perform safety invasive procedures, in order to collect biological samples for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.
This new generation ultrasound system along with image analysis software packages provide an optimal view of healthy and /or pathological liver parenchyma, that will allow to perform, with extreme precision, biopsies from this tissue, which will be representative of a wide spectrum of stages of liver disease. In addition, this instrument will be an useful tool for monitoring hepatic diseases and will lay the basis for the development of “personalised medicine", as well as, define new personalised therapeutic strategies that represent the future in clinical practice