Centre of Excellence (Biobank)
About Specialized Unit
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There is a need for early diagnostic and prognostic tools to prevent the progression of liver diseases. As a result, the need to establish appropriate infrastructure to link high-quality clinical data with advanced molecular and genetic technologies has become apparent. A cornerstone to achieving this capacity is the development of biobanks that can collect and maintain human biospecimens needed to support precision (personalized) medicine. Disease-specific biobanks significantly impact the discovery of biomarkers, targeted drug development, and in general, research on the treatment of diseases. The biobanks aim to provide research groups with a platform of web-based socio-demographic information and detailed longitudinal clinical data coupled with high-quality biological samples.
TBRI biobank has been established as a center of excellence funded by the Science and Technology Development Fund (STDF), Project No. 41908, since 2020. Our biobank is a disease-specific biobank (biospecimens are collected from adult patients with liver diseases). The principal investigator (PI) is Prof. Dr. Mona Zoheiry, a professor of Immunology.
Mission
TBRI biobank facilitates the collection, processing, and storage of biospecimens from adult patients with liver diseases to be used in biomedical research, collaborative research activities, and the establishment of a community of practice focused on biobanking biological samples.
I. Objectives
- Storing plasma, serum, buffy coat and DNA samples from patients having liver diseases.
- Enabling the researchers to analyze detailed clinical data and information.
- Discovering noninvasive biomarkers that can contribute to the detection of liver disorders.
- Connecting with other biobanks and biobank initiatives.
Vision
To be an accredited national and international biobank that will provide standardized collection, processing, and storage of biospecimens from adult patients with liver diseases to be used for biomedical research directed towards advancing precision medicine.
Structure
Biobank Structure and Facilities
The TBRI Biobank consists of rooms:
1- Data Collection and Analysis Unit.
2- Sample processing unit
3- Storage Units
Deep freezers - 80oC
Deep freezers -20 oC
Liquid Nitrogen
Lab Refrigerators
B. TBRI biobank consists of two different parts:
- The biological material that is collected, processed, and long-time stored; such as plasma, serum, DNA and buffy coat.
- The database that contains clinical and epidemiologic information about patients, information about demographical and clinical data for each sample.
- With the data gathered from this database, the investigators could further demonstrate the etiology, risk factor, clinical treatment, and other aspects of the complication of the disease.
C. Activities essential to establish the TBRI standardized biobank
- Consenting procedures, data privacy standards and policies preparation.
- Samples acquisition, processing and preservation standardization.
- Quality Management Systems (QMS) development.
- Equipment and systems infrastructure validation.
- Our target is to obtain the accreditation of ISO:20387 for biobank.
- Formation of scientific, steering and data access committee.
This committee will be responsible for the decisions of the release the samples and data assess. This committee will be in governance of TBRI
Services
- Theodor Bilharz Research Institute Biobank was established for collecting, processing, storing, and distributing high-quality, clinically annotated bio-specimens from consented patients with liver diseases.
- Storing blood, serum, buffy coat and DNA samples from patients with liver diseases.
- Enabling the researchers to analyze detailed clinical information for retrospective and prospective studies and to discover the noninvasive molecular and epigenetic biomarkers that contribute to the detection of liver disorders. The collected samples from the biobank have many advantages over those collected by the researchers’ e g., time-saving, giving a chance to collect a large pool of samples for studies, and allowing harmonization of the quality control system.
- Discovering the noninvasive molecular and epigenetic biomarkers that contribute to the detection of liver disorders through the bioinformatics studies on the collected data.
- The biobank stored biological material and data can be used for the identification on site of the related novel biomarkers and to sub-classify or divide the patients into sub-groups.
- Interconnectivity with other biobanks for exchanging samples and data to provide a larger pool of samples for studies (Especially for rare diseases studies).
- TBRI biobank serves as a center of excellence for best practice and training by being a valuable center of excellence.
- TBRI became a partner in the Biobank and Cohort Building Network (BCNet). BCNet will facilitate sharing resources (e.g., expertise, protocols) and developing joint projects, strengthening the competitiveness of Low- and middle-income countries’ biobanks in applying for international funding.
Field of Research
TBRI biobank keeps blood, serum, buffy coat, RNA and DNA from adult patients with liver diseases, including viral infections, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, autoimmune hepatitis, metabolic diseases, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In Egypt, the burden of liver disease is exceptionally high, having the highest prevalence of hepatitis C virus (HCV), as well as rising rates of HCC. Although an important therapeutic advancement was achieved with the recent discovery of potent direct-acting antiviral agents (DAAs) against HCV, many infected patients still suffer from its dangerous complications.
The biobank enables the researchers to analyze detailed clinical information for retrospective and prospective studies and discover the noninvasive molecular and epigenetic biomarkers that contribute to the detection of liver disorders. In addition, this biobank can be a good chance for interconnectivity with other biobanks and biobank initiatives. This connection will lead to the collection of a large pool of samples for the research community. Eventually, it will advance biotechnology and scientific and medical research in hepatology. Finally, TBRI biobank will participate in the improvement of both public health and individual hepatic patient care.
Contact
For more information, please contact:
Prof. Mona Kamel Zoheiry
General Manager
mzoheiry@yahoo.com
Prof. Eman El-Ahwany
Technical Manager
Prof. Hoda AbuTaleb
Informatics Manager
Theodor Bilharz Research Institute
1 Nile Corniche, Warrak Al Haddar, Embaba 12411 Giza, Egypt.
Phone: +202-35407714/276/ Fax: +202-35408125
