Biobanks are infrastructures essential for research involving multi-disciplinary teams and an increasing number of stakeholders. In the field of personalized medicine, biobanks play a key role through the provision of well-characterized and annotated samples protecting at the same time the right of donors. The Andalusian Public Health System Biobank (SSPA Biobank) has implemented a global information management system made up of different modules that allow for the recording, traceability and monitoring of all the information associated with the biobank operations. The data model, designed in a standardized and normalized way according to international initiatives on data harmonization, integrates the information necessary to guarantee the quality of results from research, benefiting researchers, clinicians and donors.

The synthesis of indoles and their derivatives, more specifically bis(indolyl)methanes (BIMs), has been an area of great interest in organic chemistry, since these compounds exhibit a range of interesting biological and pharmacological properties. BIMs are naturally found in cruciferous vegetables and have been shown to be effective antifungal, antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, and even anticancer agents. Traditionally, the synthesis of BIMs has been achieved upon the acidic condensation of an aldehyde with indole, utilizing a variety of protic or Lewis acids. However, due to the increased environmental awareness of our society, the focus has shifted towards the development of greener synthetic technologies, like photocatalysis, organocatalysis, the use of nanocatalysts, microwave irradiation, ball milling, continuous flow, and many more. Thus, in this review, we summarize the medicinal properties of BIMs and the developed BIM synthetic protocols, utilizing the reaction between aldehydes with indoles, while focusing on the more environmentally friendly methods developed over the years.

Enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli (ETEC) colonizes the intestine of young pigs causing severe diarrhoea and consequently bringing high production costs. The rise of antibiotic selective pressure together with ongoing limitations on their use, demands new strategies to tackle this pathology. The pertinence of using bacteriophages as an alternative is being explored, and in this work, the efficacy of phage vB_EcoM_FJ1 (FJ1) in reducing the load of ETEC EC43-Ph (serotype O9:H9 expressing the enterotoxin STa and two adhesins F5 and F41) was assessed. Foreseeing the oral application on piglets, FJ1 was encapsulated on calcium carbonate and alginate microparticles, thus preventing phage release under adverse conditions of the simulated gastric fluid (pH 3.0) and allowing phage availability in simulated intestinal fluid (pH 6.5). A single dose of encapsulated FJ1, provided to IPEC-1 cultured cells (from intestinal epithelium of piglets) previously infected by EC43, provided bacterial reductions of about 99.9% after 6 h. Although bacteriophage-insensitive mutants (BIMs) have emerged from treatment, the consequent fitness costs associated with this new phenotype were demonstrated, comparatively to the originating strain. The higher competence of the pig complement system to decrease BIMs\' viability, the lower level of colonization of IPEC-1 cells observed with these mutants, and the increased survival rates and health index recorded in infected Galleria mellonella larvae supported this observation. Most of all, FJ1 established a proof-of-concept of the efficiency of phages to fight against ETEC in piglet intestinal cells.

Biobanking defines all activities linked to bioresource management-whether of human, animal, microbial, or environmental origin-which means that any biobank information management system should take into account the multistep life cycle of the samples: from acquisition, through preparation, storage, to distribution to the end users (medical or research teams). Different types of biobanks can use diverse approaches, making it difficult to find software that can handle all types of scenarios. Modul-Bio has developed MBioLIMS BioBanking®, a software dedicated to biobanking, as a modular solution so that our various clients can access the functionalities and scale in a system to match their needs. These projects range from biobanks setup and managed by academic institutions, hospitals, and private companies to small and large clinical trials across different countries, as well as to whole campus or organization solutions for multiple biorepositories. Each solution differs in size, requirements, and number of users, from small biobanks with a few members of staff accessing the software to large operations with multiple sites that can collect and ship samples to a centralized site. This article explores different projects that use Modul-Bio\'s software in a myriad of ways to manage the complete life cycle of biospecimens and associated data.

OBJECTIVE: To transfer pro-apoptotic BIM directly into tumor cells bypass the complicated biological processes of BIM activation so as to reverse the chemoresistance of cancer cells.
METHODS: BIMS was specifically amplified from HL-60 cells by RT-PCR, confirmed to be correct by sequencing and cloned into shuttle vector pAdTrack-CMV carrying a green fluorescence protein gene to generate a recombinant plasmid pAdTrack-CMV-BIMS. This plasmid and adenovirus backbone plasmid pAdEasy-1 were linearized and electroporated into E.coli BJ5183 host bacteria to mediate homologous recombination. The positive clone was identified by restrict endonuclease digestion. The recombinant pAdEasy-CMV-BIMS was transferred into HEK293 cells for packaging and amplification. The successful construction of recombinant human BIMS adenovirus (Ad-BIMS) was demonstrated by Western blot. To test whether Ad-BIMS has the capability of inducing apoptosis of tumor cells, Ad-BIMS was used to infect GC resistant Burkitt lymphoma Raji cells.
RESULTS: After infected for 2-5 days, BIMS expression in Raji cells was detected by RT-PCR and Western blot. The significant growth retardation and apoptosis of Raji cells were also observed by MTT and flow cytometry.
CONCLUSIONS: These results indicated that BIMS might be a potential candidate of gene therapy for chemoresistant tumor cells.