Disrupting the biospecimen "treasure trove": Practice, precedent, and future directions.

Human biospecimens are critical raw materials for biomedical research and development. Biobanks transition donated biospecimens into de-identified research assets, traversing serious ethical and legal challenges for ownership and obligations. Resulting collections are frequently described as "treasure troves" [see, for example, (1), p. 83]. The metaphor is evocative of the acquisition process, value generation, and policy framework in which human specimens are "mined" on the quest for scientific discovery. Yet, cases from Henrietta Lacks to 23&Me underscore growing discontent with a system where third parties own and exclusively profit from human specimens, further amplified amid data-hungry artificial intelligence (AI). Existing practice is dehumanizing, erodes public trust, misses opportunities to save lives, and fosters misalignment of incentives that slows scientific progress (2, 3). Recent developments in decentralized biobanking disrupt this paradigm by reconnecting individuals to their specimens, restoring trust through transparency, democratizing data ownership, and accelerating collaborative innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]