According to the Biobank’s PI LEE Techang, the Taiwan Biobank, founded 2012 by the Academia Sinica, has collected gene samples from 120,000 generally healthy Taiwan residents aged from 30 to 70 and finished whole-genome genotyping of 100,000. The biobank also collected blood and urine samples and physical data of participants, such as weight, height, blood pressure and bone mass, as well as health information including lifestyle, living environment and family disease history. The Taiwan Biobank since 2015 has also obtained gene samples from about 4,000 patients with major chronic diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease and is expected to expand sample size to 100,000 of such patients.

Xinhua news release, December 16, 2019