By Yi Whan-woo

Korea opened a biobank Thursday to collect and store various human biological samples for medical research or industry application.

The biorepository in Osong, North Chungcheong Province, can store specimens of up to 1 million individuals and preserve them for over 100 years, a government health official said.

“This is the largest biobank in Asia,” the official said. “The biobank at the medical and health industry town is designed to meet the growing need for new cures using stem cells and genes.”

The collected samples including blood, serum, plasma, urine, cells and DNA will be preserved within high-tech facilities, including 172 liquid nitrogen refrigerators, 102 standard refrigerators, and one automatic resource control platform.

The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will operate the state-run facility. The institution said it has already procured biological specimens of 500,000 individuals since 2008.

The samples are mainly divided into two types — ones from healthy people and those from patients.

The specimens are stored at the biobank and its 17 units at hospitals throughout the country, including five in Seoul.

The samples will be used in government research as well as to support companies and researchers, an official said.

Authorities have anticipated that the size of the biobank market worldwide will be worth $1.91 trillion by 2015, more than double that of 2010.

China and Japan have pushed to build biobanks since 2002. The one in China has collected samples of 40,000 individuals and seeks to store specimens of up to 500,000 people.

Japan already has achieved its goal to gather samples from 300,000 individuals.

Government health officials started a two-day symposium, inviting a number of biobank experts from the European Union, the United Kingdom, the United States and Japan. Participants shared their ideas for the effective utilization of the newly-opened biobank in Korea.