BAQ: NEW RESEARCH
INFRASTRUCTURE

The BQC19 team is currently developing a new project: Bio Accès Québec (BAQ)

BAQ is a new bank of samples and associated clinical data designed to understand, combat, and limit the impact of pathogens affecting the Quebec population.

BAQ was designed to provide Quebec with a provincial infrastructure for banking samples and data that can be used by the scientific and medical community to better understand, combat, and ultimately limit the impact of pathogens affecting the Quebec population, whether currently known or unknown. This infrastructure makes it possible to quickly recruit participants who may have been exposed to a pathogen following a case report, threat of an outbreak, outbreak, or any other event posing a health risk (e.g., a new infectious agent or environmental risk). It is therefore defined by its flexibility and ability to respond to any health risk threatening the population of Quebec, and has the agility to collect and distribute clinical data and biological samples to researchers without delay, while respecting the consent of participants.

BAQ is built on the foundations of the Quebec COVID-19 Biobank (BQC19), which, in early 2020, brought together a network of Quebec health researchers in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Building on the existing network of researchers and the ethical and legal structure of BQC19, BAQ represents the natural evolution of BQC19, ensuring that the structure and infrastructure put in place in response to COVID-19 will serve as a foundation for rapid response to future threats to human health.

Participants in BQC19 will soon be contacted again to offer them the opportunity to participate in BAQ. They will also be able to decide to extend their consent for BQC19 by agreeing that their data and samples contained in BQC19 may also be included in the BAQ collection.