The Walder foundation Boosters, Breakthroughs, and Biorepositories (B3) grant seeks to exemplify multi-university collaboration and biorepository synergy. As part of the grant, Open Commons Consortium (OCC) is working with Rush and Loyola Medical Center to set up a Virtual Biobank Data Commons. The purpose of the commons is to manage virtual biobank sample metadata between Rush and Loyola Medical Center & this project is led by Jeffrey Schneider. This infrastructure will use Gen3 Platform services, specifically the metadata service (i.e., Discovery Portal).
The initial workstream in 2023-2024 determines the feasibility of operating a stand-alone Data Commons, including a Proof Of Concept prototype using the Chicagoland Region Data Commons Discovery Portal in the Quality Assurance (QA) environment. The secondary workstream in 2024-2025 is to build a standalone Virtual Biobank Data Commons and open it to other investigators either as people seeking samples/collaboration or as partners wishing to merge their biorepository data with the Joint Loyola-Rush Biorepository.