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BBMRI.nl highlights of the Europe Biobank Week 2024
On May 14-17, the annual European Biobank Week 2024 took place in Vienna, organised by the European Research Infrastructure for Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources (BBMRI-ERIC) in collaboration with the ESBB. The Dutch node of BBMRI (BBMRI.nl) was well represented with participants from several academic hospitals and the Health-RI teams Biobank & Collection, ELSI and International. EBW24 presented an impressive snapshot of BBMRI-ERIC’s achievements in the last 10-years and discussed perspectives for the upcoming 10-years with presentations on biobank development, FAIRification and ELSI.
Keynote lectures
Highlights were the keynote lectures by Sir Rory Collins (UK Biobank) and Gillian Bartlett (University of Missouri) as well as the Ethics café.
The event brought together biobanking professionals, researchers, and industry experts from the BBMRI national nodes and beyond. It was an invaluable opportunity to engage in thought-provoking discussions, attend insightful sessions, explore the latest advancements and connect with international colleagues in the field. Dutch participants were active in several sessions.
Eric Vermeulen, chair of the Patient and public advisory committee of Health-RI and chair of the BBMRI-ERIC Stakholder Forum, guided the session Citizen & Patient Involvement: Emerging best practices? discussing and exploring the feasibility and possible framework of guidance for citizen & patient involvement in biobank committees.
Jörg Hamann, head of Biobanks & Collections at Health-RI, chaired the workshop Green biobanking and sustainability, which has been very positively received by the community for #EBW24. High energy costs and climate concerns add new dimensions to the topic of sustainability. The panel showcases examples of how green biobanking could be an answer to these challenges.
Presentations
Oral and poster presentations by Dutch participants discussed pre-analytic harmonization and reporting, biobank information management, biobank evaluation, and alignment of research infrastructures nationally and internationally. The organizers and all participants made the EBW24 a great success. The Dutch participants are excited to implement the knowledge and ideas and to continue the journey towards advancing biobank research. The EBW25 will take place on May 13-16, 2025 in Bologna.
Posters
- Dutch biobanking standard: towards harmonized, evidence based collection, processing, and storage of human biomaterials
- The Dutch BBMRI node as part of the national health and life science data infrastructure Health-RI
- To retain or to terminate? A national guide for the evaluation of biobank collections