Biobanking and diagnostics

Modern biobanks are not just limited to collect and archive samples for future use to develop and validate diagnostics, vaccines, therapeutics, and demographic data bases but also are expanding the infrastructure to permit large-scale analysis of specific disease biomarkers, starting from biological or digital material (i.e., bioimages) with well-annotated clinical and biological data for targeted therapy. Biobanks have already been contributing to the domain of proteomics, genomics, and metabolomics research, translational studies, molecular epidemiology, and drug discovery.

In medicine, we are entering a new age, as patients, healthcare providers, and academic intelligentsia increasingly cooperate to advance knowledge and test novel paradigms for detecting and treating disease. In addition, the International Organization for Standardization illustrates the requirements for biobanking (ISO 20387: 2018), emphasizing the concept of biobanks, driving the process of acquisition and storage together with some or all the activities as well as related information and data.

To serve the increasing demand and need of the industry, Andhra Pradesh MedTech Zone Limited (AMTZ) ventured to set up a Biobank that understands the need of the industry, and fulfill their requirement of taking part in making India an innovative and sustainable country.

In the nation’s battle against Covid-19 pandemic, AMTZ provided infrastructure and CapEx support to the IVD manufacturers for setting up of the state-of-the-art R&D and manufacturing facilities for the production of VTM tubes, RT-PCR kits, ELISA and rapid cards, and True Nat machines. AMTZ also supported IVD manufacturers in the synthesis of oligos, primers, and probes, which are the major components of RTPCR kits, for which the country was then completely dependent on foreign manufacturers. AMTZ contributed by producing 1 million RTPCR kits every day.

AMTZ took the imperative for the last-mile delivery of making testing services accessible to the difficult terrains, rural and interior segments of the country, by deploying an innovative intervention the rapid response mobile diagnostic laboratory (I-LAB), the first mobile diagnostic laboratory of the country to fight the virus threat. Other innovations include the mobile container hospitals and mobile oxygen plants, which were sent to the remotest parts of the country.

Establishing a biobank at AMTZ campus will be one more landmark contribution to the nation, similar to the battle against the Covid-19 pandemic. The biobank at AMTZ shall be established for collecting, characterizing, storing, and distributing blood and its components, including serum and plasma, RBC, WBC; cord blood, cord tissues; formalin fixed paraffin embedded tissue; blood for the generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), DNA, and RNA.

The biobank will aid the IVD manufacturers by providing the disease panels for which the entire industry is currently depending on imports. The ease of getting the disease samples from the Indian population will help the IVD industry in developing quality reagents and kits for the diagnosis of various infectious and non-infectious diseases. The indigenous development of performance panels will not only bring down the optimization and development cost but also benefit the mankind by making it more affordable to the masses. The biobank also aims to develop sero-conversion panels for high-risk diseases that include HIV, HCV, and HBV.

The biobank at AMTZ shall act as a major milestone in drug discovery, and assist contemporary medical research areas, such as personalized medicine for patients with targeted therapies. Researchers are continuously on the outlook for new technologies to detect the origin of a disease and provide more personalized treatment options.

The biobank at AMTZ shall be looking forward to collaborating with the stakeholders of the industry in various technical capacities and co-creating partnerships for value addition with the support desired from the clinicians, various laboratories, and the society.

This article is co-authored by Dr Susheela Branham, CEO, Biovalley Incubation Council.