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The Department of Defense Serum Repository is a longitudinal serum repository that serves as a central archive of sera drawn from Service members for medical surveillance purposes. As the world’s largest repository of its kind, the DoDSR has greatly contributed to a better understanding of the etiology of health conditions that would otherwise not be amenable to prospective study. More on the DODSR • The DoDSR stores more than 60 million serial serum specimens from more than 10 million active duty and reserve service members throughout their careers. • Since 1990, sera remaining after routine HIV-1 antibody testing and sera collected before and after major deployments have been forwarded to the DoDSR. • All serial serum specimens stored in the DoDSR are linkable to data in the Defense Medical Surveillance System (DMSS) – the central repository of military and medical surveillance data of U.S. service members. • At the repository, specimens are stored in precisely documented locations in walk-in freezers at -30 Celsius. • The DoDSR adds a powerful sero epidemiological capability to overall military health surveillance with linkage of data relevant to individual characteristics, exposure states, medical events, and specimens. • As a result, studies that used to require months to years, if feasible and affordable at all, can now be conducted in days to weeks by in-house epidemiologists. Over time, the serum repository will increase in its value as new etiologic hypotheses are developed, as technologies for detecting biological markers in sera are improved, and as medical events accrue among aging cohorts of contributors. Follow us on Twitter for more info: @AFHSBPAGE

The Department of Defense Serum Repository is a longitudinal serum repository that serves as a cental archive of sera drawn from Service members for medical surveillance purposes.

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Last Updated: March 07, 2022

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