FinnGen sample collection completed

FinnGen has met its target of collecting 500,000 participants on schedule. We want to thank each and every Finnish biobank sample donor for making medical research possible and the biobanks for their excellent cooperation over the past six years!

In total, more than 553 000 samples from biobank participants were delivered to the FinnGen study through the biobanks. More than half a million samples were needed to ensure that the final dataset, to be completed in autumn 2023, would comprise at least 500,000 individuals, also after some samples had to be withdrawn for various technical reasons.

The dataset consists of new biobank samples collected by Finnish biobanks (357 097 samples) and previously collected sample collections transferred to the biobanks, as well as samples from the Hematological Biobank (198 972 samples).

Finnish biobanks and their logos and a map of Finland with the number of samples the biobanks delivered to FinnGen.

The figure and the list below show the number of samples submitted by each biobank to the FinnGen study, the number of new samples and the number of samples collected in the past are shown in brackets after the total number for each biobank.

THL Biobank: 166 900 (7 722 + 159 178)
Helsinki Biobank: 121 992 (116 899 + 5 093)
Auria Biobank: 62 868 (52 004 + 10 864)
Blood Service Biobank: 58 203 (58 203 + 0)
Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere: 39 843 (37 683 + 2 160)
Biobank of Eastern Finland: 28 582 (23 332 + 5 250)
Terveystalo Biobank Finland: 24 772 (24 772 + 0)
Northern Finland Biobank Borealis: 22 958 (22 958 + 0)
Arctic Biobank: 14 343 (0 + 14 343)
Central Finland Biobank: 13 524 (13 524 + 0)
Hematological Biobank: 2 084 (0 + 2 084)

We will publish detailed information on our website, including the gender and age distribution of the participants, once the final data is available.

FinnGen in brief

FinnGen is a large public-private partnership aiming to collect and analyse genome and health data from 500,000 Finnish biobank participants. FinnGen aims on one hand to provide novel medically and therapeutically relevant insights but also construct a world-class resource that can be applied for future studies.

FinnGen is one of the very first personalized medicine projects at this scale and the public-private collaborative nature of the project is exceptional compared to many ongoing studies. FinnGen brings together Finnish universities, hospitals and hospital districts, THL, Blood Service, biobanks, FINBB and international pharmaceutical companies and hundreds of thousands of Finns. Because collaboration is the key to achieving breakthroughs in disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, we welcome everyone on this journey into our shared heritage.