The term biobank was first used in 1996 and referred to the use of human biological material. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) in Biotechnology, defines ‘biobanking’ as the ‘collection, preparation, preservation, testing, analysing and distributing defined biological material as well as related information and data’. Biobanks have been established to answer specific questions such as to understand rare disease, or a specific cancer. Many countries have also established population biobanks to further investigate the genetic associations that cause complex diseases. Further understanding of these multifactorial conditions such as heart disease should improve medical care. Biobanks also represent the opportunity to remedy global health inequity. Biobanks are associated with many challenges including consent, data protection and global inequalities.