Biobank
CETAF and DiSSCo: Joint COVID-19 Task Force
The Consortium of European Taxonomic Facilities (CETAF) and the Distributed System of Scientific Collections (DiSSCo) are forming a covid-19 Task Force. The Task Force will bring together experts with background in topics relevant to the key aspects for the understanding of the zoonotic nature of the SARS-Cov-2 and contribute to the global efforts from the perspective of both key biological properties of the virus and biological informatics. The Task Force objectives are focused on (a) expediting processes across DiSSCo facilities related to the implementation of covid-19 projects, (b) mobilising ad-hoc data across the 120 museums and the more than 1 billion biological specimens and (c) facilitating access to laboratory equipment for analysis of relevant material.
MIRRI: Active development of diagnostic tests
The Microbial Research Resource Infrastructure (MIRRI) covers different European Biological Resource Centres. Within the French node of MIRRI, one of the units of the Centre de Resources Biologiques de l'Institut Pasteur (CRBIP), namely the biobank of human samples (ICAReB), is actively working in relation to the SARS-CoV2 outbreak. They are receiving hundreds of blood samples per day from different geographical areas and institutions in France. These samples are prepared, cryopreserved and distributed to Pasteurian researchers developing novel diagnostic tests, specifically serological tests.
