The International Vaccine Institute (IVI) has opened its new Biorepository, a global centre for biological resources, at its headquarters in Seoul, South Korea. The new facility in the annex building of the IVI headquarters complex is expected to play a pivotal role in acquiring, preserving, and distributing pathogens and samples for research globally in support of IVI’s mission and contributing to the development of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics for global health.
The completion of the IVI Biorepository is timely and significant. As an international organisation devoted to vaccine research for global public health, IVI is working in more than 50 countries worldwide, conducting extensive research including disease surveillance and clinical trials. In the process, the institute collects a growing volume of pathogens and biospecimens (currently about 210,000 samples in total) that require systematic preservation and management to support analysis and vaccine development efforts.
The IVI Biorepository, built with funding support from the Government of Korea through Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), has the capacity to preserve 4 million samples in a facility of 1,256 square metres. The facility comes with advanced conservation rooms, including ultra-low freezers and liquid nitrogen tanks, tailored for human-derived pathogen and biospecimen storage, as well as a dedicated space for data collection, archiving and management.
Specifically, the Biorepository will collect and systematically preserve a diverse range of pathogens (viruses, bacteria, fungi) and biospecimens (serum, plasma, blood cells) to support the development of vaccines, therapeutics, and diagnostics; serve as a high-value research infrastructure for the systematic management and application of critical biological resources, enabling IVI and its partners to rapidly analyse and respond to global health threats, and strengthen international collaboration by facilitating the secure management and study of essential biological resources among IVI, countries, and global partners.
