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The Lupus Ontario Anne Matheson Biobank is located at McMaster University, Thrombosis and Atherosclerosis Research Institute. Samples for the Biobank are drawn at the Boris Clinic (where lupus patients are treated) within McMaster University Health Sciences.
The Biobank will provide an important bioresource for researchers to study lupus and may help to provide answers, allowing physicians to better diagnose the condition and predict potential problems.
The Lupus Ontario Anne Matheson Biobank is overseen by Dr. Tselios and his research team. The Biobank will include samples of serum, urine, and DNA from consenting lupus patients. Not only will the research team collect samples, but they will also collect information about the patients through quality-of-life indicators, pain and fatigue questionnaires, and anxiety & depression inventories.
Our Contribution
Lupus Ontario has made an annual commitment of $50,000 per year for three years to fund the first year of the start up and next two years of operations at McMaster University in Hamilton. McMaster has agreed to name the biobank the Lupus Ontario Anne Matheson Biobank. This project is being led by one of Lupus Ontario's former Geoff Carr Fellows, Dr. Konstantinos Tselios.
Anne Matheson
Anne Matheson is passionate about the need for support and factual information for lupus patients and their families and has put in years of contribution towards the Lupus Society of Hamilton and Lupus Ontario.
While Anne stepped back from her duties with Lupus Ontario in 2014, her legacy will live on through the establishment of the Lupus Ontario Anne Matheson Biobank at McMaster University in Hamilton.
Thank you Anne for all you have done for the lupus community. You are an inspiration to us all!
Objectives
The objectives of the biobank are:
- The major goal of the clinic will be the development of an electronic database along with an automated mode of data entry. The plan is to utilize the same software that is being currently used at the Toronto Lupus Clinic at Toronto Western Hospital (TWH). This will allow for easy access and routine use by physicians , excellent technical support and data storage that will facilitate the merge with other databases for further analysis.
- An additional goal is the establishment of a biobank, a storage facility for biological samples that will include serum, urine and DNA samples from consenting lupus patients. The software that will be utilized to monitor the samples will be similar or compatible to that of the Toronto Lupus Clinic (TWH).
- The biobank will provide valuable data for use in future Lupus Research Projects
Milestones
The major milestones for the project are:
1. Hire a research assistant (part-time) exclusively for the Lupus Clinic Registry and biobank
2. Define policies, procedures, protocols
3. Install technical infrastructure – in addition to the computer equipment and software, this also requires a -80 degree freezer. Initially, the biobank (actual samples) will be hosted in the freezers of the McMaster Immunology Research Centre.
4. Biobank operational and sample collection
5. Ongoing target number of samples to be collected each year is 750 – 1000 (assuming 150 to 200 patients)
*Dr. Tselios will provide Lupus Ontario with quarterly updates as to the progress of the project.
