The Biobank of Andalusia participates in a project to improve cancer detection
It is part of a public-private consortium that will develop a diagnostic solution for up to five types of tumors
The Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia participates in a research project, together with two biotechnology companies, for the development of a diagnostic technique that is capable of early detection of up to five types of cancer.
Specifically, the project aims to develop and implement a diagnostic solution based on the detection of RNA (one of the two types of nucleic acid) in blood to offer an early diagnosis of lung, colon, breast, prostate and pancreatic cancer. Liquid biopsy is a non-invasive technique that is performed on a blood sample to look for cancer cells from a tumor or small fragments of DNA, RNA that tumor cells release into body fluids. It is expected that the results of this work will be applicable to society as a screening method, thus allowing the diagnosis of cancer long before the first symptoms appear.
This project (with reference code CPP2021-008897) has obtained funding in the competitive call for aid to public-private collaboration projects of the State Research Agency; specifically, the State Program to Promote Scientific-Technical Research and its Transfer (State Plan for Scientific, Technical and Innovation Research 2021-2023), within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. In total, it has raised nearly 115,000 euros for its development.
In addition to the Biobank of the Public Health System of Andalusia, the biotechnology companies Flomics Biotech and Leitat Technological Center participate in this work. Specifically, the role that the Biobank will play within the framework of this consortium is to provide and process the biological samples and clinical data of the patients participating in the project. Likewise, and together with the other partners, it will actively participate in the definition of new protocols and in the design of the regulatory strategy for the implementation of a future clinical trial.
Samples for biomedical research
The SSPA Biobank has been increasing its activity progressively since the moment of its creation. Since 2020, it has received 10,514 new donors with oncological, infectious and parasitic diseases, mental, cardiovascular, respiratory, genitourinary diseases... and healthy patients who are used as controls. These new donors have given rise to 37,225 donations that have involved 100,887 samples used in research and teaching projects.
Parallel to the activity of the Biobank, the number of people registered in the Andalusian Registry of Sample Donors for Biomedical Research has also been growing, which today reaches 2,811 registered.