National COVID-19 biobank sample collection made available for research on the Portal
Published: 2023-05-10
We are pleased to announce the addition of a unique biobank sample collection to the COVID-19 Sample Collection Database, which is part of the Swedish COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness Portal. Most of the collections in the database come from regional biobanks. This collection is different in that it is instead a national collection stored at the National Pandemic Center (NPC). The collection was created and has been made available as part of a collaboration between Swedish regional health agencies, the National Pandemic Center (NPC) at Karolinska Institutet, and Biobank Sweden. It is a very large collection, consisting of over 1.5 million samples that were collected by the health regions in Sweden, and processed by NPC throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample collection is available for use in research.
“We are happy to add this unique new collection to the Sample Collection Database on the Swedish COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness Portal. This national collection of COVID-19 related biobank samples offers exciting opportunities for pandemic preparedness research. For example, it can enable retrospective analyses on how COVID-19 spread over time in Sweden. This will help with understanding how we might prevent future pandemics.” says Liane Hughes, project lead for the Portal team at SciLifeLab Data Centre.
The COVID-19 Sample Collection Database, was launched as part of the Swedish COVID-19 and Pandemic Preparedness Portal in February 2021. It was developed by SciLifeLab Data Centre in collaboration with Biobank Sweden and the SciLifeLab and Knut and Alice Wallenberg (KAW) National COVID-19 Research Program. The database was launched with the aim of making it easier for those involved in research to identify and access samples stored in biobanks that could be used to progress their work. Easy access to biobank samples is essential to pandemic preparedness, as it facilitates a greater understanding of pandemics. This, in turn, could help to prevent or reduce the impact of future pandemics.
The Sample Collection Database currently contains 36 sample collections, including 35 collections stored at 18 regional biobanks, as well as the new national collection stored at the National Pandemic Center. New sample collections will continue to be are added to the database in coordination with Biobank Sverige over time. The database has multiple filtering functions to make it easier for users to identify potentially relevant samples. For example, it is possible to filter the database by the name of the biobank/collection, as well as the type of material available in the collection (e.g. nasal swabs). For more information about the COVID-19 Sample Collection Database, and to access it, please see our Biobanks page. It is possible to search though all of the collections, including the new national collection when on the sample collection database.
Read the news about the new collection from Biobank Sweden: (In Swedish) (In English).
Read the news about the new collection from SciLifeLab.