Cyprus considers biobank upgrade

Cyprus is considering the use of Horizon 2020 funding to upgrade its biobank in order to record human genomes to a database.

The University of Cyprus (UCY) is debating the move after its Molecular Medicine Research Center (MMRC) received over €460,000 of funding through Horizon 2020’s Teaming scheme, part of the Spreading Excellence and Widening Participation pillar.

The current biobank at the MMRC backs and publicises genetic disease research in order to benefit diagnosis procedures. The Horizon 2020 money is set to be used to execute the first phase of the ‘Biobanking and the Cyprus Human Genome Project’, or CY-BIOBANK, project.