BioCollections Worldwide, Inc. (BCW) Starts Uploading HIV Sequencing Data into the National Institute of Health (NIH) Database

MIAMI – Today BCW is proud to announce that it is sharing its vast HIV sequencing database with the scientific and research community by uploading the information into the National Institute of Health’s (NIH) database. “The vast database comes from samples collected in Africa, Europe and the United States reflecting the wide diversity of HIV-1 and HIV-2 viruses”, said Mr. Sixto Pacheco, President and CEO of BCW. This is part of an ongoing effort by BCW to Open Source/share its HIV and HCV genotyping and sequencing findings with the scientific and research community. The analytical process for sequencing and genotyping HIV was developed in house by Rafael Guevara, Ph.D. This sequencing looks at two specific regions of the HIV virus: the env gp41 and pol integrase. Once analyzed and verified, these sequences are submitted to the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) and are uploaded into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) database where the sequences are available to the international community. The comparison of unique sequences from different locations at a global level of the HIV virus not only provides information on the geographic distribution of the different subtypes but also on the phylogenetic relationships between these subtypes. The importance of this data to the continued fight against HIV is extremely important. According to UNAIDS, in 2014, 36.9 million people worldwide were living with HIV. Unfortunately, given the extreme diversity of the virus, the medical and research community has been at odds in developing vaccines and medications that target the many variants of the virus. About BioCollections BioCollections Worldwide Inc (BCW) is a minority owned business established in 2001 with the objective of helping to advance diagnostic discoveries worldwide. BCW provides customized blood collections protocols (BCP's) for the development of new and emerging in-vitro diagnostics, medical devises and biopharmaceuticals. To effectively meet its clients specific needs, BCW has successfully set up both wholly owned and affiliated operations throughout the world, including Guinea–Bissau, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, South Africa, Dominican Republic, United Kingdom, Puerto Rico and numerous South American countries. In the United States it has offices in Florida, California and Nevada. As of the end of 2014 BCW has enrolled around 110,000 unique donors worldwide and has over 300,000 specimens in its Bio-Repository.