The Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes (iMM), with the support of the Fundação Luso-Americana (FLAD), is creating an exclusive Biobank for COVID-19 samples.

This Biobank will collect biological samples from infected patients, and the goal is to increase knowledge about the virus to develop therapeutic responses and find out why the virus behaves differently in diverse population groups.

The work developed in this Biobank will allow the scientific community, national and international, to use the samples in the projects that seek to better understand the different aspects of this pandemic.

FAQ’s | iMM COVID-19 Biobank

– What is the COVID-19 Biobank?

A biobank is a repository of biological samples of patients with COVID-19, with the respective clinical information about the donors.

– What is the purpose of COVID-19 Biobank?

The work that will be done will allow the scientific community to have material that will help answer multiple issues relevant to the current pandemic, and others that will arise to prevent future outbreaks of infection.

Access to samples of patients or asymptomatics exposed to COVID-19, among other groups, will allow, many other possible questions, to comprehend the infection mechanisms of the virus, as well as the immunological response of different population groups to this pandemic, with the goal to develop tests to understand which elements of the population were exposed to the virus.

– Who can use the samples and for what purpose?
This collection is being created by several scientists from the Instituto de Medicina Molecular João Lobo Antunes, in a joint work by the scientists Luís Graça, Ana Espada de Sousa, João Eurico da Fonseca, Marc Veldhoen, together with the other colleagues from biobank: Fabiana Rodrigues and Ângela Afonso. We highlight the work of Helena Cabaço and António Mendes, who set up the infrastructure and operation; Catarina Mota and Susana Fernandes who set up the connection with the COVID-19 wards.

These samples will be available to iMM scientists and to scientific community, through the submission of projects that will be evaluated by a scientific committee that will determine the relevance of the scientific and clinical issues.