Biobank is a structural unit of Federal State Budgetary Institution (FSBI) “National Medical and Research Center for Cardiology” that is directly subordinated to the Deputy Director-General, Deputy Director-General for Scientific Research, and functions as an independent department.
This unit has been founded in 2019 in accordance with the strategy “On the approval of scientific platforms of medical science” in the Russian Federation for the period until 2025, where the role of biobanks as an essential instrument of innovative development of medical technologies in Russia has been determined.
Reconstruction and renovation of facilities have been performed, equipment purchased and software FrееzerPro installed, which allows for instant search of samples by name, storage of entries about all changes in the system, data import and export.
A security system for the storage of biological sample collection has been created (alarm signals reacting to the change in freezer temperature that are transmitted to security desk and phones of responsible persons, as well as video surveillance system).
At the moment, the Biobank staff personnel includes director, biologist, technician and an engineer responsible for technical support.
By now, fleet of freezers includes just a few freezers (- 25 оС and -80оС) and cryoreservoirs (-196 оС), but will be significantly increased in the nearest time.
The planned volume is 25 freezers and 10 cryoreservoirs, which will make possible the arrangement for storing more than 700000 biological samples of different types.
We have developed the regulations and specialized standard operating procedures (SOPs).
The expert commission on biobanking has been created.
Biobank of FSBI “National Medical and Research Center for Cardiology” of Russian Ministry of Health performs the following activities:
- creation and maintenance of unique large collection of biological samples obtained from patients with cardiovascular diseases at different stages of development and treatment, as well as from individuals not suffering from these diseases;
- creation and maintenance of collection of biological samples obtained as part of scientific research projects, that includes cell lines from transgenic animals, genetically modified cells, hybridomas, antibodies, DNA, RNA, extracellular vesicles, tissue samples;
- providing samples which are required for scientific research projects performed by different units of FSBI “National Medical and Research Center for Cardiology” of Russian Ministry of Health and legal entities that have contractual relations with FSBI “National Medical and Research Center for Cardiology” of Russian Ministry of Health.
Collections created will be used for:
- The investigation of the mechanisms involved in the development of cardiovascular diseases (including molecular genetic and epigenetic mechanisms);
- The development of innovative drugs for cardiology and other areas of medicine;
- The development of new methods of regenerative medicine (gene and cell therapy, tissue engineering);
- The development of new methods of prevention, diagnostics, monitoring, prediction and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.
Biobank is a set of unique collections of standardized biological samples of different types and formats obtained from patients with cardiovascular diseases at different stages of development, with complete associated information, and based on respecting ethical and legal rules to ensure scientific research.
In January 2019, FSBI “National Medical and Research Center for Cardiology” has entered the National Association of Biobanks and Biobanking Specialists (NASbio), and the Biobank unit has been created in the Center.
A poster at the conference «Europe Biobank Week 2019» in Lübeck has been presented.
Today, the inclusion of Bank of biological materials into the structure of a medical center permits to increase the efficiency of scientific research.
