BC Platforms has announced the addition of the THL Biobank, hosted by the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), to its Global Network of Biobanks.
BC Platforms, founded in 1997 from an MIT Whitehead project spinoff, is in the business of powerful genomic data management and analysis solutions. The company operates a Global Network of Biobanks known as BCRQUEST.COM, a streamlined solution for secure data sharing, analytics and governance, enabling greater collaboration for scientific innovation.
BC Platforms has global operations with its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, research and development in Helsinki, Finland, and sales and marketing in London, Boston, and Vancouver.
THL (National Institute for Health and Welfare Terveyden ja Hyyvinvoinnin Laitos) is a Finnish Research and Development institute, based in Helsinki, formed in 2009, that aims to address applications of healthcare and scientific research data to help develop solutions to diseases and public health crises.
Their overall mission is to promote better population health and help apply scientific knowledge to accomplish this goal. More than 800 articles by THL are published in scientific journals each year. Half of these are international joint articles.
THL Biobank brings to the Global network their extensive datasets from approximately 150,000 donors, that include multiomic cohorts necessary for accelerating drug development, diagnostics, biomarker validation, identification of disease risk factors, and stratification of patients. BC Platforms provides its BCRQUEST.com platform.
This new partnership will link and integrate THL Biobank data sources to one bioanalytics platform in order to facilitate and support scientific research in the public interest. With over 20 years of experience in securely managing genomic and phenotypic data, BC Platforms has developed unique technology capable of providing researchers with tools to browse and analyze summary level information from data providers, such as biobanks, who have subscribed to the service.
“We are delighted to partner with a leader in this space who can safely and securely provide our rich data sets to a broader researcher network. The service will provide academia and industry a window to the existing data and communication tools to prepare research proposals, coordinate collaboration, and request data and samples for research projects.” – Sirpa Soini, THL Biobank Director
“We are pleased that THL Biobank, a highly respected Finnish research biobank, has agreed to provide their diverse and high quality data sets to our global network of biobanks. Using our BCRQUEST.com platform, biobanks can select which data from their collections to showcase in a secure and compliant manner to the world’s largest pharmaceutical R&D teams and establish future research projects. The life science industry benefits from this global pool of harmonized biobank data to gain scientific insights with the goal of reducing drug development timelines and bringing benefits to the patients worldwide.” – Tero Silvola, CEO of BC Platforms
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