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Paper short abstract:

Biobanks are support infrastructures for biomedical research that store biological samples. This ethnography highlighted the processes of bioinformation construction: besides the cooperative practices sustaining the biobank, power-knowledge relationships are central in defining samples collections.

Paper long abstract:

Biobanks are commonly designed to support biomedical research, by systematically collecting human biological samples associated with medical and personal data, to respond to scientific research demands.

This study followed the biological samples trajectories from their collection at the hospital, to their processing into the biobank, and then to the distribution to researchers. This has brought to the fore the relationships between medical doctors, sample’s donors, biobank staff, and biomedical researchers.

Although the biobank is said to be a structure for openly sharing samples and data for the scientific community, this research highlighted the mechanisms enabling the biobank to function, and particularly whether doctors and researchers cooperate and exercise their power over the samples and the sick bodies.

There is a set of practices that influence the construction of bioinformation. From the moment of collection, where donors decide how and what data is to be shared, to the biobank, where technicians decide how to process samples and manage lab protocols, and to the more complex relationships of power-knowledge among medical doctors and researchers. Besides, the struggle to grant research funding and the professional culture trigger closure strategies, such as keeping sets of data apart, or limiting which information is to be shared and with whom. These processes also prompt a wide range of classification systems, that are not always convergent, amplifying the diversity in bioinformation construction.