A3BC

Welcome to the A3BC. One third of Australians suffer from arthritis, autoimmune or other musculoskeletal diseases, affecting adults, children and toddlers. These diseases cost Australia over $50 billion per year, account for the greatest disability, and further impact the community through substantial out-of-pocket expenses and reduced employment. The A3BC Vision: The vision for the A3BC is that a cure for rheumatoid arthritis, and other MSK conditions, will be found through biobank-enabled research. Using a collaborative network of biobanking and data linkage/ modelling, the A3BC will uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations, and other information to identify the causes and consequences of gene variations for safer and more effective MSK disease therapy. A3BC Scope: The primary scope of the A3BC research is to better understand genomic and environmental risk factors in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA), Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis (JIA), Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA) and vasculitis. Other diseases such as Sjogren’s Syndrome, Lupus, Ankylosing Spondylitis, Scleroderma and Osteoarthritis are intended for future collection and research once the A3BC is established. A3BC Aims: - Build critical mass in national MSK capacity and capability by consolidating established/evolving biobank and data infrastructure, and bringing together leading clinicians and researchers. - Demonstrate a new era of automated data linkage where Commonwealth, biobank/’omic’, clinical, patient-reported, registry, and longitudinal data informs both national research and clinical decision-making. - Service the currently unmet need for high-quality, high-volume, data-linked and open-access biological samples for genomics and broader ‘omic’ research, to enable developments in precision medicine. - Unlike other Australian biobanks, partner with key population health research groups to integrate epidemiological and biological data discoveries for more innovative approaches to preventative medicine.