This paper examines diverging notions of value in the use of tissue sample collections and other information resources using a case study of hereditary colorectal cancer research in Finland. Recent science and technology policies that emphasize the production of commercial value derived from tissue sample collections are challenged by varying conceptions of value, as well as structural factors that relate to the combination of different public population information systems in the Finnish research system. Such challenges reflect a tension in the economic aspirations of the ideology of the knowledge society in relation to the goals of national health care policies, as well as the role of the state as a mediator of knowledge production and commercial development.