A Biorepository for Research in Child Health

The burden of child deaths and disease are especially high in Africa, where the population of children and adolescents is growing exponentially. There is a critical need to strengthen research to improve African child and adolescent health. Research is limited by the availability of high-quality African data and samples. We propose to create a biorepository of samples and data from three large studies in South Africa with ongoing planned specimen and data collection which will further grow this resource (>732,000 projected specimens). Detailed data include comprehensive measures of epidemiological and biological measures, including sociodemographic, clinical, radiological, microbiological, genetic, environmental, immunological and psychosocial data encompassing child, maternal, and environmental health measures. The linked biorepository will support numerous African and Wellcome Trust researchers, promoting interdisciplinary and capacity building research in Africa. This will provide a rich and comprehensive data resource enabling novel, collaborative research focused on improving African child and adolescent health.