Progress in rare lung diseases, such as interstitial lung diseases, has been hampered by a lack of patient-derived samples in large enough quantities or high-enough quality for systematic study. This is due to the inability of individual centers to recruit enough patients, and because of the varied samples each center obtains. Collecting, preparing, and storing such samples is not fundable by the NHLBI because it is not... more »

During recent years, clinical research including well-organized randomized clinical trials in developed countries generated large database and human biological sample banks. These are valuable resources for human disease research. Mechanisms to encourage and facilitate international collaboration for genetic and metabolic research using database and human biological samples from specific human disease population of international... more »