TORCH, Canada

Registration Status: Completed

Objective: COPD is a lung disease that limits airflow through the lungs and causes cough and shortness of breath. 2.6 million Canadians currently have COPD, and this is expected to double in the next ten years. There are many different types of COPD with various features called phenotypes. COPD is usually diagnosed and monitored using only pulmonary function testing (breathing tests that measure the lung function), which doesn’t always capture COPD phenotype or disease progression and doesn’t provide any information on the regions within the lungs that have more severe COPD and the processes in the lungs that cause COPD. Samples in this biobank will be used for future research in COPD.

Registered Biobank Name TORCH
Biobank Leader Emma Karlsen
Country Canada
Email for biobank inquiries ekarlsen@providencehealth.bc.ca
Principal Investigator Don Sin
User Type
  • Mono: A biobank that supports a specific research project, may have few staff members, a small-scale accrual scope with little to no initial intention of releasing or distributing biospecimens to secondary parties
  • Oligo: A biobank that supports several research groups or clinical trials, may or may not be designed to release biospecimens outside their collaborative group
  • Poly: A biobank that has generally a larger accrual scope, resources, and multiple users outside the biobank proper
Biospecimen Collected: