ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND -AIM The Biobank of ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII of Bergamo, established in 2014 and certified UNI EN ISO 9001:2015 is a non-profit service unit aimed at collecting, preparing and storing biological material. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biobank collected and stored biological samples from patients with SARS-Cov-2 to conduct and start research projects, collections that today represent one of the most important heritage available to the scientific community. MATERIALS AND METHODS The unit consists of three rooms with electronic access control: a room containing 32 mechanical freezers with the remote alarm control Spylog;a cryobank with 10 tanks of liquid nitrogen managed by the alarm system Cryoability;a laboratory for the treatment of pre-preservation of biological samples equipped with Freezerworks software that guarantees anonymization and traceability. RESULTS Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic the Biobank has registered a significant increase in activities by carrying out the biobanking of 22012 samples from 8354 patients. Currently it has 13800 of serum/plasma aliquots;4357 of whole blood aliquots;2318 of respiratory samples (nasopharyngeal swabs and lavages/bronchoalveolar aspirates);1247 aliquots of materials such as swabs, fluids, tissue and biopsies;290 aliquots of other material (liquor, stool, urine, saliva, sputum, eluate);The samples, collected with the active participation of clinicians and researchers, have now been used to start several clinical, diagnostic and research projects. CONCLUSIONS Biological Banks represent an indispensable source of resources for diagnosis and research. Biological collections, today, increasingly need to be organized and structured according to common and shared rules, both at local and national as well as, above all, at international level. Building on these primary goals, the ASST Papa Giovanni XXIII Research Biobank during the Covid-19 pandemic period, continued to carry out its work unceasingly, collecting biological material according to established international criteria achieving the objective of recognition by the Italian Node of the European Research Infrastructure of Biobanks and Biomolecular Resources (BBMRI-ERIC).