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The Australian Health Biobank is Australia’s first national general population biobank. It provides an unprecedented opportunity to capture population-level trends in disease states and/or environmental exposures, and accelerate integration of scientific discoveries into policy, clinical practice, and future health innovations.
Researchers across the spectrum of laboratory, psycho-social and health economics require timely access to human biobank data, collections of biological specimens and/or data, for advancing medical innovation and improving population health outcomes. Biobanks provide an invaluable, time-efficient and uncomplicated resource to research including projects funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC) and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), the key funding schemes supporting Australian health and medical research. A recent Nature publication notes that “For many researchers, biobanks can mean the difference between a successful project and one that stalls for want of crucial data”, but many biobanks are underutilised and undercapitalised. Researchers also tend to overlook these resources, which demonstrates the necessity of targeted communication and outreach to unlock their value.
What is a national biobank?
National, or population-based, biobanks are a growing sub-category of human biobanks in which the samples and data are explicitly collected with the aim of capturing the health characteristics of a country’s population. These national biobanks are increasingly being recognised as essential infrastructure for accelerating population health research, informing health policies and driving scientific discovery. Leading international health research economies, including the UK, US and Germany have established large-scale national biobanks (n = 500,000, 524,000 and 205,000 participants, respectively). Each has been transformative for the research, health system and national policy landscape of these countries leading, among other things, to the introduction of new early detection screening programs within the UK’s NHS, and changing the way that diseases are detected and treated.
Australia has many biobank collections comprising discrete tissue, disease, population group, or location-specific biorepositories, but is yet to provide a biobank resource that adequately captures Australia’s unique genetics, geography and environment, and can thus support population-health research at a national scale. Australian researchers have sought to use international and discrete national biobanks, but without an Australian equivalent, insights and innovations cannot be confidently applied to population health policy, prevention interventions or therapeutics for research about the Australian population.
To address this gap in critical national research infrastructure, the CSIRO, supported by the Australian Department of Health, Disability and Aging is establishing Australia’s first national biobank to provide researchers with secure access to a nationally representative repository of high-quality biospecimens and data. The Australian Health Biobank (AHB) represents the first time that a consent-based, nationally representative biospecimen data repository of ‘healthy’ individuals will be approved for ethically authorised research and policy development, addressing a critical unmet need in the research ecosystem.
Building a National Asset
The Australian Health Biobank is a foundational biobank linked to an Australian national health survey, with individuals selected for the 2022-2024 National Health Survey (NHS) or the National Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey (NNPAS) invited to provide blood and urine samples for long-term storage and use in future research studies. Between February 2022 and April 2024, 3 744 NHS/NNPAS participants across all age groups, states and territories consented to participate in the Australian Health Biobank , providing blood and urine samples – processed to generate 114 582 individual sub-samples of serum, plasma, buffy coat and urine. Of the participants contributing to the foundation Australian Health Biobank collection, 89% have consented for use of their samples in genomic research — providing an unprecedented opportunity for researchers to obtain a contemporary snapshot of Australia’s genetic diversity and interaction with key environmental/sociodemographic factors in determining disease risk.
The Australian Health Biobank also simplifies the need for researchers to obtain authorisations from multiple human Research Ethics Committees from multiple sites to secure samples from different geographical regions. This Governance model allows access approval to the first national database of high-quality, disease agnostic data and samples rather than requiring several site-specific Committee reviews.
Achievements
The Australian Health Biobank provides Australian researchers, for the first time, access to a national collection of biospecimens not confined to specific diseases, population groups or regions. The resource is interoperable, reproducible, accurate and available. It minimises repetitive paperwork and streamlines administrative processes. This is expected to deliver significant economic as well as efficiency benefits, as highlighted by a recent CSIRO report ‘Valuation of increased coordination in Australian biobanking’, which estimated that a national platform for searching and accessing biospecimens and associated data could deliver direct financial benefits of approximately $39 million annually.
This resource will enable comprehensive studies into population-level disease trends, environmental exposures and genetic risk factors, thereby enhancing our understanding of public health across diverse demographics. By enabling researchers to access biospecimens from underrepresented groups, including culturally and linguistically diverse individuals and those living in regional and remote areas, and link these biospecimens with health and sociodemographic data simply, the Australian Health Biobank will identify health disparities and inform the creation of targeted public health screening programs and interventions.
Vision for the Future
The Australian Health Biobank will streamline research by providing access to a centralised sample/data collection, enabling efficient, fit-for-purpose sample identification, accelerating the path from discovery to impact. Data interoperability with national health records will enable health professionals to quickly assess evidence-based practices, ensuring faster adoption of best practices across the healthcare system.
The Australian Health Biobank will also be primed for scalable and sustainable expansion, through further recruitment, via future ABS surveys and/or integration or linkage to existing biospecimen collections, thus further increasing its long-term impact. Providing a single national platform that improves visibility, streamlines access, and standardises governance also addresses many of the core barriers to the access and utilisation of samples. By consolidating infrastructure and enabling more efficient, scalable operations, it also strengthens financial sustainability and supports strategic alignment with national research priorities. Ultimately, the AHB will contribute to improved health outcomes through tailored interventions and evidence-based improvements to health policy and clinical practice guidelines.
Professor Andrew Crowden is Chairperson of the WEHI (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) Human Research Ethics Committee. He is Hon. Professorial Fellow in the Department of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne and Hon. Professor in Philosophy at the University of Queensland.
Assoc Prof Lisa Devereux is a biobanking professional with over 40 years’ experience in research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. She manages several large research cohort studies and is committed to the provision of high-quality data and biospecimens to support cutting edge research.
Dr Juanita Fernando (BA, MA, PhD, PG Dip Hlth Prof Ed, Grad Cert Bus Sys, FAIDH) is a member of the Australian Health Biobank Advisory Group, CSIRO. Dr Fernando is also a Vice Chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation (semi-retired), an Educator with the Autistic Education Trust and a Citizen Researcher.
Penelope Lello is an executive leader, board director and strategic communicator with expertise in health governance, policy reform and consumer engagement. She leads collaborative partnerships across health systems, research and community sectors to embed consumer voice and lived experience in decision-making.
Caroline Bull has a PhD from University of Adelaide. She is a Senior Research Scientist at CSIRO with a research focus on genome stability, and preventative positive health interventions.
Sarah Payton is Project Manager for the Australian Health Biobank Project and has led the delivery of key components for the project, establishing project standards in reporting, risk, stakeholder engagement and scheduling. Prior to this, Sarah held QC, R&D and Project Manager roles at Melbourne Genomics and CSL, leading diverse improvement and implementation projects across the pharmaceutical, healthcare and research sectors.
Assoc Prof Bev Muhlhausler is a Principal Research Scientist in Public Health and Wellbeing in CSIRO’s Health and Biosecurity Business Unit, where she applies her expertise in public health, nutrition and human physiology to a range of internal and external projects. She is the Principal Investigator of the Australian Health Biobank, a significant initiative from the Department of Health and Aged Care to establish the first national biobank linked to the Australian National Health Survey.
The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The Australian Health Biobank is supported by funding from the Federal Department of Health, Disability and Aging.