Objectives of NIDB:

• To develop, maintain and serve as a custodian of a national repository and reference collection of microbes (bacteria, viruses and fungi) of public health importance and associated clinical specimens in Singapore under the direction of MOH and the Director General of Health. This repository will facilitate public health investigations and research as determined by the appropriate approval platform.
• To facilitate the study of microbes (genotypic and phenotypic characterisation including resistance and virulence) to inform public health and infection control efforts.
• To support and encourage research in the development and validation of new diagnostics and therapeutics.​​​
  

NIDB FRAMEWORK

All collections will be subject to the applicable Singapore / international laws and ethical frameworks, such as the Human Biomedical Research Act (HBRA), Human Biomedical Research (Tissue Banking) (HBR (TB)), Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), Public Sector (Governance) Act (PSGA), Infectious Diseases Act (IDA), Biological Agents and Toxins Act (BATA), ethics approval by the relevant institutional review board(s) (IRBs), and inter-institutional agreements, as applicable. ​​

There are two main collections housed under NIDB. The public health collection and the clinical and research collection.
​Public health collection: Samples collected under the Infectious Diseases Act will be overseen by the public health oversight committee.

Clinical/ research collection: Samples deposited (e.g. from clinical and research networks) for use by the general clinical and scientific community in Singapore and abroad will be overseen by the NIDB oversight committee.

Oversight committees

The oversight committees provides oversight and advice on specimen management and utilisation for NIDB's collections.​For more information on the current collections in NIDB and all other queries, please send an email to [email protected]​​