ARCHIVED: Project: National Gene Vector Biorepository and Coordinating Center (NGVB)

Primary UITS contact: Therese Miller

Last update: July 1, 2016

Description: The Indiana University School of Medicine has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health to create the National Gene Vector Biorepository and Coordinating Center (NGVB). The NGVB helps university scientists share research information and substances to promote discoveries, patient safety, and compliance with regulations of the Food and Drug Administration.

UITS staff, in collaboration with the Indiana University School of Medicine's Bioinformatics Core, have built and are maintaining and extending the web-based information systems used to manage and share information.

Outcome: The NGVB increases the pace of research by providing a consistent, organized source of reagents, as well as safety data to national and international researchers.

Milestones and status: All primary software is in production. Recent work has focused on:

• Enhanced administrative functionality
• Security and infrastructure improvements
• Migration of NGVB software to use the IU Intelligent Infrastructure for all internal systems

Comment process: Send mail to Biorepository Manager at National Gene Vector Biorepository or directly to the following address:

National Gene Vector Biorepository
Dept. of Medical and Molecular Genetics
980 W. Walnut Street, R3 C602
Indianapolis, IN 46202
317-274-4519

Benefits:

• The NGVB's services include maintaining a warehouse of important reagents, disseminating the results of safety studies, and storing biological materials and patient specimens in accordance with FDA regulations.
• Researchers use gene vectors, such as disabled viruses, to carry genetic materials in the body in hopes of treating or preventing disease. For example, genes important for fighting infections may be inserted into immune system cells that have been rendered inactive by genetic mutations. Being able to secure these highly variable reagents from a trusted, national source reduces experimental variability and increases research efficiency.

Client impact: The following Indiana University researchers are directly or indirectly supported by this project:

• Ken Cornetta, Medical and Molecular Genetics
• Tatiana Foroud, Medical and Molecular Genetics
• Stephen Dlouhy, Medical and Molecular Genetics
• Mary Dinauer, Microbiology and Immunology

Aids achievement of the following Empowering People Actions:

• Action 4: Cyberinfrastructure:

  IU should continue to advance its local cyberinfrastructure, participation in national cyberinfrastructure, and its efforts to win federal funding of cyberinfrastructure programs that enhance IU's research capabilities. (RT leads)

• Action 5: Philosophy of abundance:

  IU should pursue strategies that approximate a philosophy of abundance, within reason, towards unmetered availability of basic IT services, support, and infrastructure for creative activity, storage, computation, communication, and other activities fundamental to the work of the university via any appropriate sourcing strategy. (EI leads; RT supporting)

  The NGVB web application relies extensively on the database and application server environments offered by IU cyberinfrastructure.

• Action 16: External funding:

  OVPIT should continue to lead and expand its efforts to effectively partner with academic units, campuses, administrative units, or individual investigators for external funding opportunities. (PTI leads; RT supporting)

  The NGVB has secured over $3 million in funding from the NCRR.

• Action 24: World-class IT staff:

  IU should remain competitive with regard to compensation, benefits, facilities, workplace climate, and quality of life offerings through funding choices to attract, develop, and retain the very best technical and professional staff.

  The NGVB grant supports one member of the world-class UITS staff.

• Action 51: Technology transfer:

  IU should develop its IT capabilities to support and enhance the flow of innovation from researchers and innovators to the practical use of the public and private sectors of the state of Indiana and beyond. (PTI leads)

  The innovative vectors developed and disseminated by the NGVB increase the pace and certainty of gene therapy techniques.

• Action 70: IT-enabled research:

  IU should purposefully select areas of great and timely promise for strategic development of IT-enabled research, scholarship, and/or creative activity. (PTI leads)

• Action 71: IT-enabled research resources:

  IU should identify a base of resources to provide both initial and sustained investments in selected areas for IT-enabled research, scholarship, and/or creative activity. This may include reallocating current resources and developing new ones, including endowments, grants, and/or additional fees. (RT leads)

  The creation of the NGVB web application allows the research group to offer reagents and procedures as a resource and service to the larger research community.

Project team:

• Richard Meraz, Manager, ABITC
• Ryan Long, Principal Systems Analyst, ABITC

Governance:

• Dr. Ken Cornetta, Indiana University School of Medicine, project leader