[Challenges and Potentialities of Biobank Projects -Chairman's Introductory Remarks.]

At the symposium entitled "challenging future of bio-bank business," the following topics were presented: 1) Bio-bank in the field of preemptive diagnosis by Prof. Saito (Fujita Health University), comprising personal health records of healthy individuals (3,000 as of Nov., 2015) consolidated with bio-resources under the or- ganization of the Resource Center for Health Science; 2) Cord blood banking by Mr. Asai (Stem Cell Institute Inc.), which was started in 1999, including mesenchymal stem cells for autologous purposes; 3) Bio-banking for regenerative medicine by Mr. Esaki (Healthcare Service Division of METI), in which stem cells from cord blood, surgical tissues, and dental pulp targeted for allogeneic purposes were emphasized; 4) Demonstration of a reference/search program for bio-bank business with a focus on medical information, a dietary question- naire (BDHQ), and stress questionnaires (GHQ-28 and CES-D) by Mr. Sakurai (SEIKOTEC Co., Ltd.). In iddition. Mr. Mivata (Nikkei BP. Inc.) helned facilitate the symposium.