OREANDA-NEWS.  November 19, 2013. A delegation from the Estonian Genome Center visited Vietnam last week, signing a cooperation agreement with Hanoi Medical University, which is working towards building the Vietnamese national biobank.

With a population of 90 million, Vietnam is still a few years away from establishing a biobank, as the necessary legal framework has yet to be developed.

In preparation for beginning to collect data from donors in the years ahead, the medical school's researchers have previously visited Estonia and other European countries in order to familiarize themselves with the structure of various biobanks.

"Of all the biobank models seen, the Estonian one impressed the researchers the most. As a result, they turned to the Estonian Genome Centre, UT, with the request of exchanging experience," a press release from the University of Tartu said.