Established in 1919, Latvia University with more than 15,000 students, 13 faculties and 17 scientific institutes is the only classical university in Latvia being the leader and most influential educational institution in the country. The new campus allows unique possibilities for basic research as well as biobanking, while the infrastructure has been built in collaboration with the major university hospitals (including Riga East University Hospital) and other highly specialised medical institutions (Digestive Diseases Centre GASTRO, Academic Histology laboratory) assures the capacities for patient recruitment and highly professional sample processing. Since 2013, the Institute of Clinical and Preventive Medicine in close collaboration with IARC is running a population-based study for gastric prevention Gistar having enrolled over 10,000 study subjects by now. The number of subjects having been enrolled on the biobank approached 1,000 gastric cancer cases and exceeds 3,500 control subjects. Significant material has been acquired on biomarker detection, including traditional biomarkers as well as VOCs.
The research group has gained significant experience in running and managing EU and national projects. Currently, the VOGAS (H2020) project, has the responsibility of the clinical activity coordination between centres in Europe and Latin America. Other EU projects to be mentioned in relation to VOC detection principles include SNIFFPHONE, VOLGACORE, A- PATCH and others. It has been initiating the Gastric Cancer Data collaborative project for the GaiaX platform. The group has developed strong international collaboration in the EU and globally.