BIOTROP – Biotropical Resources Biobank [NI-SERV-2020-20]

Research infrastructure for biomedical sciences, especially infectious diseases and the One Health approach.

OPPORTUNITY TO BE PROMOTED

Service Provision / Expertise

OVERVIEW

BIOTROP was set up in late 2016 at the Global Health and Tropical Medicine – GHTM, the R&D Unit of IHMT NOVA. Its vision is to contribute to excellence in biomedical research and initiatives that promote a healthy society.

Its mission is to provide high quality material to researchers and to promote research into multiple infectious diseases that affect humans, animals, and the environment, while using a Global and One Health approach.

Our team is made up of a General Executive Coordinator and a Technical Coordinator, a Scientific Committee, a Technical Committee, and three external Consultants.

BIOTROP is part of the Portuguese Roadmap of Research Infrastructures and the national networks Biobanco.pt and Portuguese Microbiological Resources Center Network (Pt-mBRCN).

BIOTROP is a high-quality facility with different storage temperatures (4°C, -20°C, -80°C, LN2), a backup freezer, emergency backup power, a central air extraction system, an air-conditioning system, an oxygen sensor, a laminar flow cabinet, and laboratory management software. It is prepared to receive, preserve, and distribute samples, according to good laboratory practice and standard operating procedures.

BIOTROP complies with ethical and legal frameworks. It had a Data Privacy Impact Assessment (DPIA) Approved from Data Protection Officer (DPO) from NOVA and follows the international infrastructure, ethical, and legal frameworks and guidelines, such as ISBER Best Practices 2023, OECD Best Practice Guidelines for Human (2009) and for Biological Resource Centres (2007), and complies to the Nagoya Protocol on Access and Benefit Sharing.

COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGES

Biobanks are central infrastructures for innovation in global health. Through biobanks, researchers may have access to a wide array of biological specimens, anticipating sample collection needs for prospective applications (e.g. biomarkers development, new therapies, diagnosis methods, etc.). The quality of the biospecimen collection, storage, and database management may be key elements for the success or failure of all these applications.

BIOTROP comprises unique and diverse collection integrating human samples with biodiversity samples (full organisms or derived material from pathogens, hosts, vectors, reservoirs, or environmental samples) that are continuously being updated, resulting from ongoing research projects.

FURTHER DETAILS AND AN ONLINE CATALOGUE MAY BE FOUND AT

https://www.ihmt.unl.pt/investigacao/biobanco/

https://ghtm.ihmt.unl.pt/infrastructures/

APPLICATIONS

BIOTROP collections and associated data are available on request.

BIOTROP may also provide additional specific services (full list available at the site), such as:

• Design sample processing and preservation, according to Standard Operating Procedures;
• Nucleic Acid extraction (DNA and RNA);
• Bacteria and Parasite Cultivation and Preservation;
• Bacteria and Parasite molecular taxonomic characterisation.

RESEARCH CENTRE

Global Health and Tropical Medicine (https://ghtm.ihmt.unl.pt/)