The publishing house Routledge has released the book “Artificial Intelligence in Biobank Operations: Ethical, Legal and Societal Challenges.” It examines the ethical, legal, and societal implications of the growing role of artificial intelligence (AI) in medical biobanks. Biobanks are a crucial research resource, both for global disease prevention studies and for enhancing individualised care.

While AI has the potential to accelerate health-related research, the book brings together interdisciplinary studies on the ethical, legal, and social implications of AI use in biobank operations and biobank-based research.
Exploring the development of science and the protection of human rights, it addresses such important topics as accountability, data bias, and transparency. These issues are considered from legal and ethical perspectives in order to oversee such a vital resource in an era of rapidly evolving technologies.
Among the editors of the book are three researchers, two of whom are Latvians: lead researcher Dr. sc. soc. Signe Mežinska from the Faculty of Medicine and Life Sciences at the University of Latvia, Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine, and Ph.D. Santa Slokenberga, Associate Professor in Medical Law at Uppsala University, Sweden.
The book is open-access and available online.
--The cooperation between partners BBMRI.LV is coordinated by the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre, which implements project No. 1.1.1.5/3/24/I/006 “Development of the research potential of Latvia by strengthening the integration of the Latvian Biomedical Research and Study Centre into European infrastructures and scientific networks”. One of the activities of the project envisages achieving the performance indicators of the Latvian National Partnership Plan for the Biobanks and Molecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC), where communication plays a major role. The creation of such books and their free access to the target group provide comprehensive information on biobank operations and biobank research.
