During the day, Professor André Mégarbané, director of the BRC bioJel, was able to display the collection of plasma, DNA and cells (primary and cell line) associated with the data. In other words, thanks to the biobank, the researchers have rare information at their disposal: they associate information concerning the patients’ genome (genotypic data) to specific description elements of the patients‘ phenotypic data, which proves very precious to help research progress.
Thus BioJel makes its samples available for the whole of the national and international scientific community. This availability, however, remains possible under certain conditions, particularly ethical ones.
This “free” access encourages a growing number of scientific partnerships and research projects for a better understanding of genetic intellectual disabilities and therefore enables the patients to receive better care. It is precisely BioJel’s objective.
All the researchers present on June 3rd last praised this scientific ambition at the service of patients. Doctor Antonia Coppus, who came especially from Rotterdam where she works within the neurosciences department, admits: “I am impressed by this biobank. It is functional and collects new samples every day. This enables us to have a good overall insight of Down Syndrome and other genetic intellectual disabilities in the long term”.
Professor William Mobley, head of the neurosciences department at the University of San Diego (US), congratulates the professionals of the Jérôme Lejeune Institute for their great work in favor of people with Down Syndrome and their contribution to the scientific community:
through the samples they collect, the work they carry out with their patients, the link they establish between the samples, and the history of these very patients. These elements that they know give researchers the possibility to go deeper into the syndrome and observe the changes.
Professor William Mobley
BioJel is the source of several important publications, amongst which that of André Mégarbané. European Journal of Human Genetics, 2013.
