In 2023, the new biobank of the RBINS was formally put in place. It is coordonated by JEMU and it consists of collections of biological tissues and DNA extracts. Since the 1990s, tens of thousands of samples have been analyzed in the Laboratory of Molecular Systematics of the RBINS. They come from many places around the world, sometime from remote geographic regions that are difficult to access (e.g. Antarctic Ocean, African tropical forests, Lake Baikal). These samples also represent many species, sometimes rare, extinct or newly described species. Most were freshly collected from living organisms, and some were sampled from precious museum specimens. In all cases, they represent unique material to study the biodiversity on earth at specific space and time spots.
The new biobank of the RBINS is now operational thanks to the recruitment of one permanent technical staff in 2023. Equipment was purchased in 2008 thanks to the National Lottery and initial workflow was developed in 2012-2015 thanks to a Agora project of Belspo.
The tissues are stored at ultra deep temperature (-70 to -80), a temperature that is excellent to preserve the original quality of many biomolecules. If today, DNA is the focus of the research, other kinds of molecules such as RNA or proteins could be investigated in the future. The DNA extracts are stored at room temperature, in a dry mineral matrix that should preserve DNA for long term. This promising type of storage is interesting because it does not require any energy to maintain a cold temperature.
Finally, all data associated with the biobank will be integrated in the general collection management system of the RBINS, DaRWIN the Data Research Warehouse Information Network to offer easier access to molecular resources to the worldwide scientific community (Dec. 2023).
