This study was designed to analyze biomarker-related publications and patent trends which biobanks could consider in planning biosample collections for biomarker research.

Publications and patents containing the term “biomarker” in the title published between 1998 to 2017 were retrieved using Scopus database and Google Patents search engine.

Over the last 20 years there has been a steady increase in biomarker-related publications and patents; however this has slowed for patents over the last few years. Publications in 2017 that contained blood, serum, and plasma search terms in the abstract accounted for 50%, and serum as a search term in the title and abstract was more numerous than those containing blood, plasma, tissue, or urine. Blood-related patents were the most common patent in the last 10 years, and accounted for 110 patents in 2017. Biomarker-related publications since 2010 containing RNA and protein search terms in the title and abstract, were more numerous than those containing DNA and metabolite search terms. More than 27% of biomarker-related publications in 2017 and 21% of biomarker-related patents were associated with cancer.

The results of this study will help biobanks establish a biosample collection strategy for clinical application.