The National University of Colombia is an public entity of superior education with three axes of action, education, extension and research. As part of this last axis, biological research are developed providing material and relying on biological collections. The Biology Department houses the Host-Parasite Relationship Study Group collection (GERPH) which focuses on parasitic symbiotic relationships between blood-infecting taxa and their wildlife vertebrate hosts.

Parasite-Host Relationship Study Group/Grupo de Estudio Relación Parásito-Hospedero

The Host-Parasite Relationship Study Group (GERPH) was founded to safeguard and study the blood parasite diversity of Colombian wildlife. The collection contains 31,000 microscopic slides of blood smears and organ prints from approximately 13,000 specimens. These samples were collected from 20 species of fish, 72 species of amphibians, 107 species of reptiles, 710 species of birds, and 100 species of mammals. At least 1,650 parasite infections belonging to the groups Apicomplexa, Kinetoplastea, and Nematoda have been found in these vertebrates. Additionally, the GERPH blod / tissue /DNA biobank have approximately 8,000 samples taken since 2010.


Samples are stored in ethanol, SET buffer or EDTA at -20°C. DNA extracted from some infected and non-infected vertebrate are resuspended in TE and stored at -20°C.

GERPH collection has microscopic preparations as specimen voucher material and photographic record of the hosts.

Collection Size

8000 Blood tissue DNA frozen, 31000 Microscopic slides

Collection Coverage

Usage restrictions

The Universidad Nacional de Colombia is the custodian of the samples, then a specific interinstitutional agreement will be required for the transfer of samples. Samples transferred to foreign collections or laboratories must follow the applicable export processing for non-CITES species. Samples of species in any CITES appendix may be exported if the researcher carries out the corresponding export process with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development or another competent authority. Other intended uses, such as biological prospecting, industrial application, or commercial use, require the researcher or their institution to obtain a genetic resources access contract from the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development or the competent authority. This follows the application of the Nagoya Protocol regarding access to genetic resources and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits derived from their use. Materials transferred to an institution may not be shared, either fully or partially, with a third institution or researchers without first consulting GERPH directly and managing the resulting agreements. Failure to adhere to these terms during or after carrying out studies with transferred materials, as reported by third parties or detected through scientific publications, thesis, informs, for example, will be referred to the Universidad Nacional de Colombia's Legal and Intellectual Property Office.

Access rights

The biological collection GERPH can provide specimens for developing research and exchange specimens with other national or international collections. For the latter, agreements or contracts must be signed beforehand. Specimens may only be used for scientific activities, such as generating new molecular knowledge for systematic, taxonomic, ecological, evolutionary, or biogeographical research, and must be used for non-commercial purposes. Tissue, blood, and DNA samples are finite resources, so access to them is at the curators' discretion. Access is granted depending on the amount of sample per species available in the collection, in order to maximize its preservation. Anyone interested in transferring DNA samples should consult with the curators Nubia Matta via email at icsti_nal@unal.edu.co, and Angie Gonzalez at adgonzalezg@unal.edu.co . If transfer is possible, the interested party should sign a specific material transfer agreement, and the material mobility procedures will begin.

Curation details

Institution Codes

Rights

The measured utilization of blood or other tissue and DNA specimens can be conducted under particular arrangements with other collections or multidisciplinary or inter-institutional research initiatives. The proposal of projects would include discussions about authorships for products from inter-institutional research projects that involve researchers from Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Transferred samples should only be used for the agreed-upon purposes by those who signed the agreement directly. Once studies are finished, any remaining samples should be destroyed or send-back to the collection GERPH. The GERPH collection must be credited as the source of the samples in databases, publications, and research that use the collection's material.