Genetics Unit, Medical Sciences Research Laboratory, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, University Mohammed Premier, Oujda, Morocco.
Higher Institute of Nursing Professions and Health Technologies, Oujda, Morocco.
Biomed Res Int. 2020 Dec 8;2020:8812609. doi: 10.1155/2020/8812609. eCollection 2020.
Biobanks are highly organized infrastructures that allow the storage of human biological specimens associated with donors' personal and clinical data. These infrastructures play a key role in the development of translational medical research. In this context, we launched, in November 2015, the first biobank in Morocco (BRO Biobank) in order to promote biomedical research and provide opportunities to include Moroccan and North African ethnic groups in international biomedical studies. Here, we present the setup and the sample characteristics of BRO Biobank.
Patients were recruited at several departments of two major health-care centers in the city of Oujda. Healthy donors were enrolled during blood donation campaigns all over Eastern Morocco. From each participant, personal, clinical, and biomedical data were collected, and several biospecimens were stored. Standard operating procedures have been established in accordance with international guidelines on human biobanks.
Between November 2015 and July 2020, 2446 participants were recruited into the BRO Biobank, of whom 2013 were healthy donors, and 433 were patients. For healthy donors, the median age was 35 years with a range between 18 and 65 years and the consanguinity rate was 28.96%. For patients, the median age was 11 years with a range between 1 day and 83 years. Among these patients, 55% had rare diseases (hemoglobinopathies, intellectual disabilities, disorders of sex differentiation, myopathies, etc.), 13% had lung cancer, 4% suffered from hematological neoplasms, 3% were from the kidney transplantation project, and 25% had unknown diagnoses. The BRO Biobank has collected 5092 biospecimens, including blood, white blood cells, plasma, serum, urine, frozen tissue, FFPE tissue, and nucleic acids. A sample quality control has been implemented and suggested that samples of the BRO Biobank are of high quality and therefore suitable for high-throughput nucleic acid analysis.
The BRO Biobank is the largest sample collection in Morocco, and it is ready to provide samples to national and international research projects. Therefore, the BRO Biobank is a valuable resource for advancing translational medical research.
生物银行是高度组织化的基础设施，允许储存与供体个人和临床数据相关的人类生物标本。这些基础设施在转化医学研究的发展中发挥着关键作用。在此背景下，我们于 2015 年 11 月在摩洛哥推出了第一个生物银行（BRO 生物银行），旨在促进生物医学研究，并为包括摩洛哥和北非族群在内的国际生物医学研究提供机会。在这里，我们介绍了 BRO 生物银行的建立和样本特征。
在城市奥杰达的两个主要医疗保健中心的几个科室招募了患者。在摩洛哥东部的献血活动中招募了健康的捐赠者。从每个参与者收集个人、临床和生物医学数据，并储存了几种生物样本。已经按照国际人类生物银行指南制定了标准操作程序。
2015 年 11 月至 2020 年 7 月，2446 名参与者被招募到 BRO 生物银行，其中 2013 名是健康的捐赠者，433 名是患者。对于健康的捐赠者，中位年龄为 35 岁，范围为 18 至 65 岁，近亲结婚率为 28.96%。对于患者，中位年龄为 11 岁，范围为 1 天至 83 岁。在这些患者中，55%患有罕见疾病（血红蛋白病、智力障碍、性别分化障碍、肌病等），13%患有肺癌，4%患有血液系统肿瘤，3%来自肾脏移植项目，25%患有未知诊断。BRO 生物银行收集了 5092 个生物样本，包括血液、白细胞、血浆、血清、尿液、冷冻组织、FFPE 组织和核酸。已经实施了样本质量控制，并表明 BRO 生物银行的样本质量很高，因此适合高通量核酸分析。
BRO 生物银行是摩洛哥最大的样本采集库，已准备好向国家和国际研究项目提供样本。因此，BRO 生物银行是推进转化医学研究的宝贵资源。
