Biobank of Sechenov University

2024: Creation of Russia's largest biomaterial bank for healthy people

The largest bank of biomaterials of healthy people in Russia has been created. It will help identify diseases long before symptoms. This project of Sechenov University became known in early May 2024.

We will know what he fell ill with hypertension-,, cancer something else. And then let's see how the test results changed, and retrospectively we will find those that were associated with the early stages of the disease or an increased risk of its development, "says Anna Semina, director of the new biobank (quoted by" News"). - This is a very difficult task, including technologically. But the results of such studies will allow you to track minimal fluctuations in indicators and predict the risk of developing the disease long before it begins.

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According to the initiators of this project, part of the biomaterial for such a bank can be collected during ordinary medical examinations and medical examinations. Patients can donate blood or other research material by completing an informed consent document.

Attracting healthy patients is a separate goal. And the main tool for achieving it is the popularization of knowledge about why all this is needed, "says Anna Semina.

According to her, by 2024 there are many young people in the Russian Federation who are interested in the achievements of science. If they understand what they are going to do and how the bank's data is used, they will actively donate biomaterial, knowing that they are doing it for a common future.

Head of the Department of General Medical Practice of the RUDN University Nikolai Sturov, in a conversation with the newspaper, called the creation of a bank of biomaterials of volunteers a progressive idea and emphasize that the analysis of these banks will help in stratifying the risk of certain diseases, when not one indicator is assessed separately, but several diverse markers in their aggregate throughout life.^[1]

2023: Creating a saliva biobank

Specialists Sechenov University at the end of June 2023 announced the start of work on the creation of the first Russia in the biobank saliva as part of the Priority 2030 strategic academic leadership program. The collection of samples will allow developing methods for diagnosing and treating diseases by studying the correspondence between the levels of certain biomarkers in saliva and the state of the body, the university said.

The project is being implemented on the basis of the existing biobank of Sechenov University, among the resources of which are more than 140 thousand samples of blood, urine, tissues and other biomaterials received from patients of the university clinics and industrial partners. The initial size of the collection will be 300 samples, in the future it will be replenished. Scientists will collect biomaterial from visitors to the clinics of Sechenov University: both healthy and with various diseases - the collection should reflect the state of health of the population.

The saliva biobank project will be implemented on the basis of the existing biobank of Sechenov University

Scientists from Sechenov University will be the first to access the collection, but in the future specialists from other clinical and research centers will be able to use it. The collection will become a resource base for basic and applied research, the results of which will also be useful to pharmaceutical companies and clinical and diagnostic laboratories.

Body fluids reflect many of the processes that occur in the body. With the help of a biological resource collection of saliva, it will be possible to investigate markers of cancer. It can also be used in studies of autoimmune, cardiovascular, endocrine pathologies. Based on this information, it will be possible to create new methods of diagnosis or personalized therapy, - said Maria Peshkova, junior researcher at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine.[2]

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