BBMRI-ERIC’s contributions to research and knowledge exchange on COVID-19

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the European biobanking infrastructure is in a unique position to preserve valuable biological material complemented with detailed data for future research purposes. Biobanks can be either integrated into healthcare, where preservation of the biological material is a fork in clinical routine diagnostics and medical treatment processes or they can also host prospective cohorts or material related to clinical trials. The paper discussed objectives of BBMRI-ERIC, the European research infrastructure established to facilitate access to quality-defined biological materials and data for research purposes, with respect to the COVID-19 crisis: (a) to collect information on available European as well as non-European COVID-19-relevant biobanking resources in BBMRI-ERIC Directory and to facilitate access to these via BBMRI-ERIC Negotiator platform; (b) to help harmonizing guidelines on how data and biological material is to be collected to maximize utility for future research, including large-scale data processing in artificial intelligence, by participating in activities such as COVID-19 Host Genetics Initiative; (c) to minimize risks for all involved parties dealing with (potentially) infectious material by developing recommendations and guidelines; (d) to provide a European-wide platform of exchange in relation to ethical, legal, and societal issues (ELSI) specific to the collection of biological material and data during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Considerations for diagnostic COVID-19 tests

“…In an effort to tackle the multifactorial aspects of COVID-19, an ensemble of large-scale, well-balanced and representative cohorts of individuals who have or have not been affected by SARS-CoV-2 and non-affected individuals, with particular attention to high-risk populations, has already been catalogued in the European Union. These have been assembled rapidly with use of existing research infrastructures such as biobanks under the pan-EU Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI-ERIC) 145 . Similar efforts have been reported in Taiwan, Nigeria and several regions in the Asia Pacific region 146 – 148 (see also the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) town hall meeting “The COVID-19 impact part 1: preparedness and response across Indo-Pacific rim and China” ).…”

The medical and societal impact of big data analytics and artificial intelligence applications in combating pandemics: A review focused on Covid-19

“…New ML and soft computing models should be invented to predict outbreaks and the complex variations in their behaviour across nations by providing benchmarks ( Ardabili et al, 2020 ). Moreover, biobanks should be integrated into healthcare systems, which can preserve the biological material and host prospective cohorts and material related to clinical trials so that research infrastructure can offer access to materials for future medical crises ( Holub et al, 2020 ).…”

Rapid establishment of a COVID-19 perinatal biorepository: early lessons from the first 100 women enrolled

“…Data from other institutions in areas highly impacted by COVID-19, such as New York City and urban areas in Europe, have demonstrated the importance of leveraging existing protocols and pipelines to successfully build a biorepository during this unprecedented pandemic [29,30]. By rapidly amending existing protocols in collaboration with those Principal Investigators and through the volunteered time of Obstetrics and Neonatology clinicians, we were able to rapidly enroll and collect high quality, wide-ranging sample types from pregnant women and their newborns.…”