The current project that the National DNA Bank is working on is the establishment of a collection of DNA samples that is representative of the Spanish population, with the aims of making these available to researchers in order to facilitate, promote and develop studies into human evolution and genetic diversity with regards to health, the development and treatment of illnesses. In order to do so, in collaboration with Regional Transfusion and Blood Bank Centres, samples are being collected from 1300 individuals throughout the national territory. The number of individuals selected from each province is proportional to the population of the province with regards to the national Spanish population.

If you are interested in taking part in this project and being a voluntary donor whose DNA will represent the population that resides in your community, the conditions that should be met, the donation process and where to donate will be outlined below.

Conditions for being a donor

Anyone who is over 18, in good health and has no immediate family (parents, brothers or sisters, children) that has donated samples to the National DNA Bank can be a DNA sample donor. The criteria for good health consists of not having suffered from; cardiovascular, renal, pulmonary, hepatic, haematological illnesses or any other chronic conditions which require continuous treatment, hepatitis B, C infections or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Donor selection will be carried out at Regional Transfusion and Blood Bank Centres in each autonomous community amongst those who voluntarily express the desire to take part in the National DNA Bank project. Normally, this selection will be carried out amongst regular blood donors, although if you are not a regular blood donor and are interested in taking part, you can contact the centre in your autonomous community (you will find their address in the "Associated Centres" sub-menu in the "Donation Centres" menu).

Donation Process

Si quieres colaborar con nosotros puedes hacerlo donando una muestra de sangre. Actualmente están colaborando con nosotros los Regional Transfusion and Blood Bank Centres que aparecen a continuación:

1. Centro de Hemoterapia y Hemodonación de Castilla y León
   Dirección: Paseo Filipinos s/n. 47007 Valladolid
   Persona de contacto: Sonia Pérez Página web: www.chemcyl.com

Once the donor has decided to take part in the National DNA Bank project, they will sign a consent form, which will inform them on the process and the research studies in which the samples will be used.

Once the consent form has been signed, the donation can be made. For this, a relatively small volume of venous blood will be extracted (30 ml) from the arm. Donation of blood does not pose any kind of risk for the donor as the instruments used are sterilised and used only once and there are hardly any side effects, the most frequent being the appearance of small bruises where the blood has been taken which disappear after 1 or 2 days.

The donor should also complete a general questionnaire on state of health, daily habits and family background.

Si quieres puedes descargar ambos documentos (haciendo clic sobre el nombre del documento) y rellenarlos antes de acudir al centro de donación.

Para cualquier duda puedes ponerte en contacto con nosotros a través del correo electrónico (bancoadn@usal.es).

Documentos para descargar

• Consent Form
• General Questionnaire

Guarantee of confidentiality of Personal Data

The National DNA Bank, in accordance with the Organic Law 15/1999 of the 13 th of December on protection of personal data, guarantees that the identity of donors and the treatment of the data provided will be dealt with completely anonymously. In order to do so, the donors' blood samples, taken at the transfusion centres, are coded with the transfusion centres own code and sent to the National DNA Bank (1 st code). Once received by the bank, they are again coded (2 nd code) with an internal code exclusively used by National DNA Bank personnel. When the samples are sent to researchers, they are again coded with a random code (3 rd code) which makes it impossible for anybody to identify the identity of the donor of the aforementioned samples.