It will be challenging to mobilize public funding for huge standardized repositories of biological specimens and accompanying clinical data (Nature 469, 156–157; 2011). But this could be complemented by tapping into ongoing industry-sponsored biobanking activities.

For example, clinical trials often include dedicated biomarker studies, with a budget for collecting specimens and data — a facility that could contribute to shared repositories, serving both industry and the public at a modest additional public cost. Even if only a fraction of the more than four million subjects enrolled worldwide in interventional trials were to be captured, progress would be enormous.

From my work on biomarker detection at biotechnology company SDIX, and as a consultant on biobanking for public-health authorities, it is clear that this expansion could also advance public health, providing biomarkers to improve our understanding of risk factors associated with population-specific diseases and helping us to tailor public-health initiatives.

Such a synergistic venture could significantly advance the field, but would require systematic encouragement from national health ministries, harmonization of protocols, integration of individual repositories into larger virtual networks, attention to ethical, legal and social implications, and respect for the need of private partners to retain certain intellectual-property rights.