| abstract | - The Department of Defense Serum Repository (also referred to as the DoD Serum Repository or simply DoDSR) is a biological repository operated by the United States Department of Defense containing over 50,000,000 human serum specimens, collected primarily from applicants to and members of the United States Uniformed Services. The DoDSR is located in Silver Spring, Maryland and is operated by the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center (AFHSC), a subordinate of the United States Army Center for Health Promotion and Preventive Medicine (USACHPPM), itself evolved from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. The DoDSR traces its origins to 1985 and the beginnings of the United States Armed Forces HIV screening program (originally referred to as the HTLV-III screening program), when serum remaining after periodic laboratory testing of service members was retained first by the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), then later systematically archived in the Army/Navy Serum Repository, the precursor to the DoDSR. Today the DoDSR is among the largest serum repositories in the world, in terms of numbers of individuals represented, number of longitudinal specimens stored per individual, and total quantity of serum. The majority of specimens are linked to detailed medical and personnel data, creating a valuable resource for retrospective research and public health surveillance. The DoDSR's longitudinal serum, collected systematically from a large population, has enabled major contributions to understanding the etiology of many health conditions not otherwise amenable to prospective study, including multiple sclerosis, schizophrenia, autoimmune diseases and cancer.
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