The COVID-19 Biorepository study conducts follow-ups on the 1st, 3rd, 6th, 9th, and 12th months, to track the participants’ health and the effect of the virus on the body and immunity, said Dr. Marwa A Eldeeb, Medical Office Manager at Qatar Biobank.

Dr. Eldeeb said that the findings of the research projects are shared with the decision-makers in the Ministry for their consideration.

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A recent priority for WACIC is providing data that will allow scientists to better understand how the vaccines work in protecting against emerging variants of COVID-19 like the Omicron strain, which may pose more significant risks for children and adolescents.

With the support of the Foundation, a team led by Dr. Michael O’Sullivan from PathWest and Perth Children’s Hospital is working on expanding the biobank to include samples from children and adolescents. This is a collaborative effort between PathWest, the Child and Adolescent Health Service, Telethon Kids Institute, and other health and community organizations.

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Before the pandemic, restrictions on data and sample sharing had become intensified due to the exploitation of low-and middle-income countries (LMICs) by some resource-rich countries. This prompted the development of stringent guidelines to protect samples and data from leaving countries in Africa during previous outbreaks like pandemic influenza, SARS, and Ebola. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of data and sample sharing responsibly within the context of data transfer agreements (DTAs) and material transfer agreements (MTAs). The additional layer of complexity introduced by the pandemic is reflected in forced national lockdowns that limit human movement physical distancing that renders the collection and sharing of biological samples logistically and ethically problematic.

Read this blog post that provides some guidance to researchers, biobankers, research ethics committee members, and other interested persons for ethical practice related to biobanking research in low and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Judit Fendler, Chancellor of SZTE, emphasized that the development also represents a qualitative leap in clinical science, primarily oncology and neuroscience, and genetic research using human biological samples, strengthening the university’s position in the international and domestic scientific field.

Following the difficulties caused by the coronavirus epidemic, SZTE redesigned the ongoing investment and expanded the biobank’s capacity. BSL-2 laboratories capable of storing samples from coronavirus-infected patients were even placed in the biobank. In the future, these laboratories will also greatly facilitate the processing and biobank storage of samples from patients with other viral diseases, thus facilitating the rapid identification of infections.

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The biorepository at the Institute for Personalized Medicine joins more than 8,000 facilities worldwide to be accredited by the College of American Pathologists, the world’s largest body of board-certified pathologists who advocate for high-quality and cost-effective medical care. The accreditation program began in 2012 with the goal of providing requirements for the standardization of processes that will result in high-quality human specimens and genetic materials that can be used to support research.

The biorepository currently holds more than 120,000 samples from Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center patients who provide consent when visiting a clinic or in preparation for surgery. They are used for a variety of research studies and include a collection of specimens from patients diagnosed with COVID-19.

In addition to COVID-19 research, the Institute for Personalized Medicine supports studies for various cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, orthopedic conditions, psychiatric disorders, and other diseases.

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