Work Package 7 – Use Case
Work Package leader: Roxana Merino Martinez, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, Roxana.Martinez@ki.se
The B3Africa project will tackle one of the major challenges in biobank research worldwide: to close the research cycle in such a way that all the data generated by a research study can be consistently associated with the original samples and can hence be reused in other studies.
The B3Africa platform is an orchestration of a collaboration framework that includes the ethical and regulatory framework, a governance policy, a technical platform that consists of an informatics-integrated solution, and the eB3kit that provides access to biobanking, biomolecular research, and bioinformatics as part of a workflow. All of these components are integrated through the joint work of several Work Packages. Work Package 7 (WP7) will test the platform in selected institutions as a proof of concept. Synergy between WP7 and other Work Packages will guarantee systematic feedback for improvement of the platform.
Eight institutions were identified as use case:
| Country | Institution |
| Kenya | ILRI |
| Uganda | Integrated Biorepository of H3africa Uganda |
| The Gambia | Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia |
| Ghana | Breast Care International |
| South Africa | Stellenbosch University |
| Nigeria | Institute of Human Virology Nigeria- H3Africa Biorepository (I-HAB) |
| Malta | Malta Biobank |
| Poland | Wroclaw Research Centre EIT+, National Biobanking Node |
Each institution has implemented the B3Africa informatics platform; the eB3Kit. All the components of the eB3Kit are being tested, according to the institution requirements. Several other institutions and organizations have shown great interest in adopting the eB3Kit. The most popular application provided by the B3Africa informatics platform is the Baobab LIMS, developed at SANBI and deployed in most for the use cases institutions.