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MINI REVIEW article

Front. Trop. Dis
Sec. Disease Prevention and Control Policy
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2024.1438842
This article is part of the Research Topic Importance and Applications of Biological Collections and Biobanking Activities for Tropical Health View all articles

Biobanking for Tropical Health: Leveraging collaborative initiatives in the Lusophone world

Provisionally accepted
Ana Paula Arez Ana Paula Arez 1*Aline Souto Aline Souto 2Manuela Da Silva Manuela Da Silva 3Carlos Nascimento Carlos Nascimento 3Isabel Couto Isabel Couto 1Silvana M. Belo Silvana M. Belo 1Nelson Lima Nelson Lima 4,5
  • 1 Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, LA-REAL, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, UNL, Lisbon, Portugal
  • 2 Fiocruz Biological Collections, Vice-Presidency of Research and Biological Collections, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, Paraná, Brazil
  • 3 Fiocruz Biodiversity and Health Biobank, Vice-Presidency of Research and Biological Collections, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation – Fiocruz, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 4 Micoteca da Universidade do Minho, Biological Engineering Centre, Universidade do Minho, Braga, Portugal, Braga, Portugal
  • 5 LABBELS-Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Biological collections and biobanks are essential for scientific research and innovation, supporting various scientific fields such as food and health sciences, biotechnology, and agriculture. They preserve and provide diverse organisms, biological materials and their associated data, enabling the study of biodiversity, diseases, and their evolution and ecological functions. These collections are crucial for addressing global challenges like biodiversity loss, sustainable food and feed production, and human health, including understanding variations in pathogenic and etiologic agents over time. Biobanks support the development of new therapies, biomarkers, and diagnostic tests while promoting equitable benefit sharing from genetic resource utilization and developing and implementing international standards, crucial for improving research reliability and reproducibility. Collaborative networks enhance biobank operation by organizing data, exchanging biological material and facilitating trans-biobank studies and protocols standardization/harmonization. The establishment of the Lusophone Network of Biobanks and Biological Collections is a significant step toward promoting collaboration, capacity building and capacity development among Portuguesespeaking countries, many of them dealing with tropical health issues, facilitating knowledge exchange and resource sharing for scientific advancement on a global scale.

    Keywords: Biological collections, biobanking, Portuguese-speaking countries, Capacity Building, collaborative network, global health, Biodiversity, Access and benefit sharing

    Received: 26 May 2024; Accepted: 22 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Arez, Souto, Da Silva, Nascimento, Couto, Belo and Lima. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ana Paula Arez, Global Health and Tropical Medicine, GHTM, LA-REAL, Instituto de Higiene e Medicina Tropical, IHMT, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, UNL, Lisbon, Portugal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.