Morocco’s First Biobank: Establishment, Ethical Issues, Biomedical Research Opportunities, and Challenges

Abstract

Background. Biobanks are highly organized infrastructures that allow the storage of human biological specimens associated with donors’ personal and clinical data. These infrastructures play a key role in the development of translational medical research. In this context, we launched, in November 2015, the first biobank in Morocco (BRO Biobank) in order to promote biomedical research and provide opportunities to include Moroccan and North African ethnic groups in international biomedical studies. Here, we present the setup and the sample characteristics of BRO Biobank. Methods. Patients were recruited at several departments of two major health-care centers in the city of Oujda. Healthy donors were enrolled during blood donation campaigns all over Eastern Morocco. From each participant, personal, clinical, and biomedical data were collected, and several biospecimens were stored. Standard operating procedures have been established in accordance with international guidelines on human biobanks. Results. Between November 2015 and July 2020, 2446 participants were recruited into the BRO Biobank, of whom 2013 were healthy donors, and 433 were patients. For healthy donors, the median age was 35 years with a range between 18 and 65 years and the consanguinity rate was 28.96%. For patients, the median age was 11 years with a range between 1 day and 83 years. Among these patients, 55% had rare diseases (hemoglobinopathies, intellectual disabilities, disorders of sex differentiation, myopathies, etc.), 13% had lung cancer, 4% suffered from hematological neoplasms, 3% were from the kidney transplantation project, and 25% had unknown diagnoses. The BRO Biobank has collected 5092 biospecimens, including blood, white blood cells, plasma, serum, urine, frozen tissue, FFPE tissue, and nucleic acids. A sample quality control has been implemented and suggested that samples of the BRO Biobank are of high quality and therefore suitable for high-throughput nucleic acid analysis. Conclusions. The BRO Biobank is the largest sample collection in Morocco, and it is ready to provide samples to national and international research projects. Therefore, the BRO Biobank is a valuable resource for advancing translational medical research.

Assessment of Biobanking Knowledge and Attitudes towards Biospecimen Donation among Healthcare Providers in Saudi Arabia

“…87% and 84% of them would donate blood and urine biospecimens, respectively, compared with the 46% BRO biobank cohort. Interestingly, 44% of our participants would donate their excess surgical tissues, while 48% of Moroccan patients would donate their excess surgical tissues (including FFPE tissues and frozen tissues) to the BRO biobank [55].…”

Establishment of a patient-derived organoid model and living biobank for nasopharyngeal carcinoma

“…A biobank of recurrent NPC is still in its infancy. A tumor organoid biobank can recapitulate tumor heterogeneity and personalized genetic information ( 26 - 28 ), and a living biobank provides a rich resource and convenient platform for studying disease pathogenesis and enables the development of precision medicine ( 29 ). Here, we showed the potential workflow for establishing and applying a living biobank of recurrent NPCOs.…”

Molecular heterogeneity of β‐thalassemia variants in the Eastern region of Morocco

“…2.1 | Description of the study and ethics statement This cohort study was achieved in the Genetics Unit of the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of Oujda. According to the BRO Biobank protocol (Lhousni et al, 2020), the participants were enrolled by the Pediatric departments of the University Mohammed IV Hospital of Oujda and the Regional Center of Blood Transfusion of Oujda, Morocco.…”