Biobank Łódź® – population based biobank at the University of Łódź, Poland

Background: Biobank Laboratory of the University of Łódź is a unit in the organizational structure of the De- partment of Molecular Biophysics at the Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection. It was established in 2014 as one of the results of the TESTOPLEK project. One of the main goals of the unit is to collect and share biological material of human origin and related clinical and survey data. Moreover, Biobank Laboratory conducts work in the field of genetics and molecular biology on human biological material. Biobank Laboratory gathers over 40.000 samples such as DNA, FFPE, saliva, together with their data. Data about its material is available for researchers in directories e.g. BBMRI-ERIC Directory 4.0. Since 2014, the unit belongs to the national Consortium BBMRI.pl, and since 2017 it executes a project entitled Research Infrastructure for Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources BBMRI-ERIC, co-creating the Polish Network of Biobanks. Biobank Laboratory is focused on coopera- tion with domestic and foreign scientific institutions and medical units, as well as entities from the local, business and public sector.