ORF TV Report (“Konkret”, 19 May 2020)
MedUni Wien Biobank Cohort involved in Sars-CoV-2 antibody testing
The Biobank of the Medical University of Vienna harbours the sample cohort of the “LEAD-Study” collected at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute. It is one of the largest long-term studies on the topic of lung health.
Recently, the LEAD-Study re-invited their participants for assessment of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies to estimate the number of unreported cases of COVID-19. Approximately 11000 study participants and people living in their household responded. This makes the cohort valuable not only for estimations of SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in Vienna and its surrounding area, but also as a resource for investigations regarding SARS-CoV-2 distribution and antibody detection. Until analysis, the samples are stored at the MedUni Wien Biobank.
Biobanks are a key to assess whether an antibody test is able to deliver reliable positive or negative test results. The millions of samples stored in BBMRI.at biobanks can help to determine the best tests. Especially for specificity analysis, biobanks can provide samples from patients who most likely did not suffer from COVID-19 because the stored samples were collected prior to the onset of COVID-19.
