The Importance of Biobanking for Response to Pandemics Caused by Emerging Viruses: The European Virus Archive As an Observatory of the Global Response to the Zika Virus and COVID-19 Crisis

Eva Zika Workgroup , C Baronti (1, 2) , P Lieutaud (3) , M Bardsley (4) , De Lamballerie X , K Resman Rus , M Korva , M Petrovec , T Avsic-Zupanc (5) , G Matusali , S Meschi , C Baronti (1, 2) , M Bardsley (4) , P Lieutaud (3) , X de Lamballerie (3) , T Blecker , F Drexler , C Drosten (6) , C Fischer , D Niemeyer , M Schmidt (7) , M Koopmans , B Haagmans , S van der Werf (8, 9) , S Behillil (8, 9) , V Enouf (8, 9) , M Albert (8, 9) , F Donati (8, 9) , G Matusali , S Meschi , Bruno Coutard (3) , Jean-Louis Romette (3) , Kathryn Miyauchi (10) , Rémi Charrel (3) , Christine M.A. Prat (3)

1 EPV - Emergence des Pathologies Virales
2 IHU Marseille - Institut Hospitalier Universitaire Méditerranée Infection
3 UVE - Unité des Virus Emergents
4 APHA - Animal and Plant Health Agency [Weybridge]
5 Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, Lubljana, Slovenia
6 Charité - UniversitätsMedizin = Charité - University Hospital [Berlin]
7 CHART - Cognitions Humaine et ARTificielle
8 GMV-ARN (UMR_3569 / U-Pasteur_2) - Génétique Moléculaire des Virus à ARN - Molecular Genetics of RNA Viruses
9 CNR - laboratoire coordonnateur - Centre National de Référence des virus des infections respiratoires (dont la grippe) - National Reference Center Virus Influenzae [Paris]
10 Philipps Universität Marburg = Philipps University of Marburg

When a new virus emerges and causes a significant epidemic, the emergency response relies on diagnostics, surveillance, testing, and proposal of treatments if they exist, and also in the longer term, redirection of research efforts toward understanding the newly discovered pathogen. To serve these goals, viral biobanks play a crucial role. The European Virus Archive (EVA) is a network of biobanks from research laboratories worldwide that has combined into a common set of practices and mutually beneficial objectives to give scientists the tools that they need to study viruses in general, and also to respond to a pandemic caused by emerging viruses. Taking the most recent outbreaks of the Zika virus and SARS-CoV-2 as examples, by looking at who orders what and when to the EVA, we illustrate how the global science community at large, public health, fundamental research and private companies, reorganize their activity toward diagnosing, understanding, and fighting the new pathogen.

Keywords: viruses; biobanking; preparedness

Domains: Life Sciences [q-bio]

Eva Zika Workgroup, C Baronti, P Lieutaud, M Bardsley, De Lamballerie X, et al.. The Importance of Biobanking for Response to Pandemics Caused by Emerging Viruses: The European Virus Archive As an Observatory of the Global Response to the Zika Virus and COVID-19 Crisis. Biopreservation and Biobanking, 2020, 18 (6), pp.561-569. ⟨10.1089/bio.2020.0119⟩. ⟨pasteur-04098841⟩