Biobanks represent an invaluable research tool and as a
result of their intrinsic and extrinsic nature may be looked
upon as archives or repositories largely made up of libraries,
or collections of content where the content is the biological
material derived from different individuals or species,
representing valuable tangible assets for the individual and
society.
This information that lies, attached to the content and
embodied in its support, in the form of data, represents an
intangible asset of inestimable value. Defi nitional
uncertainties relating to the concept of either physical or
intellectual property render the issue a highly complex one,
with confusion over defi nitions also extending to the type of
samples and data biobanks collect and store. This paper
will attempt to draw an outline of the various defi nitions of
“biobank”, identifying the two primary nuclei, one arising
from scientifi c literature, and a second which is purely
regulatory. It will examine the MeSH Medical Subject
Headings thesaurus descriptors to discover how the term
“biobanks” was fi rst conceived, evolved, and adopted by
scientifi c publications and the body of defi nition that has
evolved within the legal framework.