| Issue/Objective |
African biological samples have long powered global health research while African communities have remained marginalised from the science, decision-making, and benefits that research produces. This structural inequity is sustained by an infrastructure gap, African biobanks operate in fragmented silos, invisible to researchers and disconnected from each other. PABNet BioAtlas was developed to address this directly: as Africa's first continent-wide biobank intelligence and specimen discovery platform, built by Africans, governed by Africans, and designed for African research realities. |
| Methodology/Approach |
PABNet BioAtlas was developed using a bottom-up, practitioner-driven approach grounded in published empirical evidence from a continental landscape survey of 22 biobanks across 11 African countries. Platform architecture draws on federated data design principles and BBMRI-inspired national node models, adapted for African regulatory and resource contexts. Development is led by a 10-member Pan-African multidisciplinary team spanning bioethics, quality management, and biobank operations, with legal registration in Uganda. |
| Results |
Key outcomes to date include a peer-reviewed publication establishing the evidence base, a defined platform architecture incorporating specimen discovery, continental accreditation, and researcher access workflows, and a BBMRI-inspired national node model designed for deployment across all 54 African countries. The platform embeds community consent, data sovereignty, and continental quality accreditation into its core design, ensuring African communities retain governance over how their biological resources are used. |
| Discussion/Conclusion |
ioAtlas addresses an upstream determinant of health inequity, the structural invisibility of African biological research resources by making them discoverable, quality-assured, and accessible on African terms. It directly enables the development of diagnostics, vaccines, and therapeutics grounded in African biological data. In a world of fragmented governance and shrinking resources, infrastructure-level interventions that restore African agency in global health research represent exactly the bold, equity-driven action this conference calls for. |
| Presenters and Affiliations |
Sandra Nanyonga Pan African Biobanking Network |
