Abstract:

Background & Aims: To better protect global biodiversity, humans need to correctly understand the nature and laws of biodiversity and to develop plans for biodiversity protection that are situational. Doing so will stimulate the social value and economic benefits of biodiversity protection. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that biobank has placed in promoting biodiversity research and protection with a goal of solving the following three problems: serious homogenization of biobank resource pool function, difficult maintenance of biobank, and an urgent need to evolve to a higher level.
Progresses: We systematically reviewed the origins and current situation of biobank at home and abroad by conducting a literature survey on the basic characteristics, operation mode and practical experiences from the Human Genome Bank (HGB), the Animal and Plant Germplasm Bank, the Ecological Bank, and the Biodiversity Bank. The main feature of the HGB is the data-driven model that is not limited by time and space. The essence of HGB is the common technology platform useful for technology outsourcing. The main way the HGB profits is by collecting and storing human biological samples, and organizing them into medical data important for medical research institutions, pharmaceutical enterprises, and government medical departments. The main feature of the Animal and Plant Germplasm Bank is the introverted demand-driven mode with limitations in time and space. The Animal and Plant Germplasm Bank focuses more on the census and sequencing of representative animals, plant and microbial information samples, and advocates early small-scale practical activities in the pilot platform. The development mode of combining natural capital and financial capital is the biggest feature for the Ecological Bank. As a scattered and fragmented ecological resource and an intermediary platform between industrial investors and operators, the Ecological Bank rapidly reorganizes talents, technology and capital in areas where environmental resources are not destroyed but lack of driving mechanism. The biggest feature of the Biodiversity Bank is that they are bound to real financial institutions and scientific research institutions. The Biodiversity Bank appears as a third-party professional credit and rating agency. The goal of the Biodiversity Bank is to obtain a high value-added fixed income and value-added income from environmental damage and environmental governance.
Prospects: In order to become an important carrier of biodiversity research and protection, we recommend biobank make the following five actions: to strengthen the top-level design at the construction level, to clarify the ownership of intellectual property at the research level, to prevent the decline of science and technology ethics at the application level, to establish common standards at the management level, and to integrate the design of derivatives at the industrial level.

Key words: biobank types, development history, practice cases, operation modes, future challenges, policy suggestions