Serum bank and DNA bank for primates in Barcelona Zoo - Animal Tissue Bank of Catalonia (BTAC)

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Lead researcher: Mercedes Márquez (Autonomous University of Barcelona)

Description:

The Animal Tissue Bank of Catalonia (BTAC) is a non-profit organization housed at the veterinary faculty at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB). Its main objective is to provide the whole scientific community with quality tissue for different animal species for use in research. The BTAC is a recognized bank included in the NeuroPrion European Animal Tissue Bank and the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER).

There exists a specific collaboration agreement between the BTAC and the Barcelona Zoo since February 2002, under which the BTAC has started to process and manage animal tissues of different species from the Zoo’s historical archive and those newly generated, among which there are samples from primates that are preserved both in formalin or paraffin, and by freezing.

These tissues have been used to conduct studies within the BTAC’s own research programme on neuropathology. In addition, as a tissue bank, samples of different primate species have been provided to different researchers around the world to carry out their research work.

Until now, requests for samples of primates which the BTAC has held have helped to conduct various types of studies, for example, on albinism in vision, the variability of the Y chromosome, the distribution of photoreceptors in the retina, the genes associated with neurodegeneration, gene expression during evolution, etc.. In addition, in recent years, BTAC has observed an increase in the demand for DNA from primates to perform primarily phylogenetic and comparative studies with the human species.

Apart from frozen tissue samples of primates in the BTAC, the Zoo also has a large collection of frozen tissue and plasma from which it seeks to generate a collection of DNA. This proposal will provide the Barcelona Zoo a serum bank and a DNA bank of the animals in the collection, with both historic samples (based on archival samples) and future samples. In addition to use for internal studies and the linked European Stud Book (ESB) and European Endangered Species Programme (EEP), the bank will substantially complement the Animal Tissue Bank of Catalonia (BTAC)’s offer to the international scientific community, With the creation of the DNA bank of different primate species and by making it available to the scientific community,

the Zoo meets the objective of this call for submissions by strengthening research on primates and, more specifically, within genetics. In addition, following the latest EU regulations on research in primates, it minimises the use of live animals and creates profit out of the samples available in the different banks.

Sponsors of Research and preservation of the Zoo: