Türkiye
Türkiye holds observer status in BBMRI-ERIC, with BBMRI.tr serving as the National Node since 2014, coordinated by Izmir Biomedicine and Genome Center. BBMRI.tr brings together leading biobanking institutions to map and strengthen biobanking activities across Türkiye and the wider Euro-Mediterranean and MENA regions.
Its mission is to establish a sustainable national biobanking network, develop ethical and legal frameworks, harmonise standards and share best practices. Through standardised procedures, robust IT infrastructures, and quality assurance systems, BBMRI.tr contributes to the pan-European BBMRI-ERIC research infrastructure. More about BBMRI.tr.
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Areas of expertise
Establishment, long-term preservation, governance and controlled access sharing of high-quality biospecimen and associated data collections within collaborative research frameworks.
Development, characterisation, and biobanking of innovative experimental models for cancer and rare disease research in translational and preclinical settings.
Design, implementation, and sustainability of quality management systems for research biobanking, including ethical, legal, and social (ELSI) compliance frameworks.
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Achievements
Significant expansion of the rare disease biospecimen collection. Through systematic patient recruitment and strengthened clinical collaborations, substantially increased its rare disease biospecimen inventory, enhancing national coverage and improving sample diversity for translational research. In 2025, 8,671 new biospecimens from 1,353 rare disease patients, with additional samples obtained from affected family members, spanning undiagnosed and 82 different rare disease groups, representing a 2% increase in the total biobank inventory. ii) Increased research utilisation and project support capacity. In 2025, distributed 841 biospecimens to research teams across 13 national/ international projects, supporting translational and preclinical studies in rare diseases and oncology. This reflects a strong sample-to-project conversion rate and demonstrates the biobank’s active integration into multi-center collaborative research workflows.
Scientific papers and congress appearances. Several scientific papers have been published in high quality journals and these cover topics such as childhood leukaemia, Missense variants in PKAN; clinical, electrophysiological, and neuroimaging features of BPAN; Biobank contribution to understanding haematological cancers and rare diseases; studies of liver tissue. Congress appearances included: CARE4ARID1B Project and Genomic Findings in Pediatric B-ALL Relapse with Ultra-Rare Extramedullary Eye Involvement.
Supporting the generation of new knowledge via doctoral and master thesis. Acıbadem University Biobank and I.U. Aziz Sancar Rare Disease Biobank supported studies into: Genetic predisposition to leukemia and lymphoma; COP II Pathway Genes Functional Analyses in Hemolytic Anaemia; Current Molecular and Bioinformatic Approaches for Investigating Genetic Components in Neurodegenerative Diseases Associated with Iron Accumulation in the Brain.
Achievements linked to calendar year 2025
National Node Director: Prof. Dr. Ali Osman Kilic
🔗 Web: http://bbmri.ibg.edu.tr/