Registration

Knowledge vs Opinion: Their Role in Patient Choice
Rajan Jethwa, Chief Executive Officer, Virgin Health Bank, Qatar

Umbilical cord blood stem cells have huge potential, both currently for transplant surgeons and in the future for potential autologous cell-based therapies. Virgin moved into the arena over four years ago and is unique in offering a choice of banking models. However, increased public opinion of this industry has raised the discussion of controversial issues surrounding storage and subsequent usage. Dr Jethwa will discuss Virgin's aims within the sector and discuss why enabling parental choice is key to Virgin's strategy.

Cord Blood Banking Market Analysis
Enal Razvi, Managing Director, Select Biosciences Inc, United States of America

In this presentation, we will describe our most-recent market analysis of the cord blood banking space and frame it into the broader cellular therapy marketplace. Both qualitative and quantitative market trends are presented in this talk.

Coffee Break and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

The Bavarian Red Cross Blood Donor BioBank - the First Successful Combination of Blood Donation and Biobanking
Christine Zoglmeier, Project Manager BioBank, Blutspendedienst Des Bayerischen Roten Kreuzes, Germany

As the first blood bank, the Bavarian Red Cross Blood Bank has implemented a novel concept combining blood donation and biobanking. Its BioBank samples are uniquely positioned to address research issues related to the early diagnosis of slowly progressing diseases.

Latest Advances in High Throughput Sample Processing, DNA Purification and QC
Phil Robinson, Managing Director, KBioscience, United Kingdom

During the presentation we will show you pictures and video’s of our current processes we run with our proprietary technologies for DNA purification, for both mammalian samples and samples from Agricultural samples. We will explain the different technologies we use, both in chemistry as in hardware solutions, in order to work both efficiently and cost efficient as a service provider. We will go into detail on the QC methods we use to determine DNA quantity and quality as well as the processes in place to secure sample ID integrity and traceability throughout the process.

Lunch and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

Free Workshop
Advancement of Separation, Purification and Crystallography from Agilent Technologies

Poster Presentations

Free Workshop
High Content Screening for Compounds and Genes Affecting Bacterial and Viral Infections

Biobanking : An Attempt at a Global Regulatory Approach
Marc Martens, Senior Associate, Bird & Bird LLP, United Kingdom

The presentation will examine the typology of biobanks and their respective regulatory framework, and will then examine several current legal issues the biobanks are facing (among others, the presentation will focus on privacy issues, ownership rights and informed consent). Finally, on the basis of a case study, the presentation will address the import and export of human biological material, will examine whether a legal harmonization is needed and/or possible in that respect.

Coffee Break and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

Bioethics and Regulations for the Global Biobanking Field
Timo Faltus, Research Associate, Martin-Luther-University, Germany

The presentation explains the legal framework for running a biobank in the European Union in general and especially under German law. Therefore, the presentation will give an overview of European Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products Regulation (ATMP Regulation) and the European Tissue Directive in the field of biobanking. Additionally, the presentation describes the legal requirement for international and transnational cooperation in the biobanking field. Finally, the presentation will highlight the pitfalls regarding the range of the informed consent in biobanking.

What To Do With the Heel Prick Cards? Report on Views of Dutch Parents on Their Storage, Management, and Use
Carla El, researcher, VU University Medical Center, Netherlands

This presentation discusses the questions and themes for analysis of a recent web-survey conducted in the Netherlands on parents’ views regarding prolonged storage of the Guthrie cards used in newborn screening, the management of such a collection and secondary use.

Human and Nonhuman Biobanking Regulations. An International Framework
Elena Salvaterra, Senior Researcher, Scientific Institute Eugenio Medea, Italy

Since its origin, the debate on biobanking has concentrated on regulations addressing the collection, storage and use of biological materials and associated data. This presentation seeks to represent the evolution of regulations on biobanking by reporting not only the paramount of laws and guidelines addressing human biobanks but also describing specific regulations covering animal and vegetable specimen collections.

Drinks Reception

Free Workshop
PCR without DNA purification – Thermo Scientific Direct PCR

Hospital Integrated Biobanking and Prospective Cancer Biobanking (U-Can)
Anna Beskow, Director, Uppsala Biobank, Sweden

Uppsala Biobank has a biobank service that is integrated in the existing hospital infra structure. Uppsala Biobank supports research where an example is U-Can, a cancer research infra structure project where samples and data are collected routinely from cancer patients in hospital care.

Utilising Informatics to Add Value to Banked Samples
Jane Rogan, Biobank Business Manager, Manchester Cancer Research Centre, United Kingdom

Informatics can mean anything from sample tracking to relating clinical data to samples. This talk will describe what we mean when we say informatics and how we've used it to our benefit.

Coffee Break and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

Research Biobanking to the Benefit of Personalized Medicine in Oncology
Antje Stratmann, Scientist, Bayer Schering Pharma, Germany

Collaboration with medical doctors is crucial to build up a pharma research biobank. Both the underlying concept - compliant with socioethical considerations and deploying biotechnology’s best practice - as well as some real-life biomarker case studies will be presented.

Lunch and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

Free Workshop
Glosensor Technology: Intracellular Biosensors to Detect Signal Transduction in Living Cells

Poster Presentations

Free Workshop
Automatic High Content Screening for Life Sciences

Human Stem Cell Lines: Challenges for Long Term Delivery
Glyn Stacey, Director, UK Stem Cell Bank, United Kingdom

Many research labs can rapidly provide collaborators with rapid samples of cells from their work. However in sourcing such research materials there are a number of critical issues that researchers should be aware of including potential microbial contamination, cell line cross-contamination, variation in ethical regulations in different regions and intellectual property issues. If not addressed properly each of these can lead to serious problems for the researcher. Stem Cell Banks committed to public supply of stem cell lines are valuable resources to enable researchers to obtain access to many different cell lines which have been subjected to minimum standards of quality control and best practice. This presentation will give an overview of the key issues mentioned above, how the UK Stem Cell Bank manages these and the international standards that are being developed for such biobanks.

Coffee Break and Networking in Main Exhibition Hall

The Future of Bio-Sample Storage is Here to Stay – Not in the Cold but at Room Temperature!!!
Rolf Muller, Founder, President and Chief Scientific Officer, Biomatrica, United States of America

We will present technologies and methods derived from nature (biomimicry) applied to transporting and storing a wide range of biological samples, from purified gDNA and RNA, to more complex mixtures in blood, tissue and cell lines at ambient room temperature.

The Fraunhofer Technology Platform: Sustainable Integrated Biobanking for Biomedical Applications
Heiko Zimmermann, Director/Professor, Fraunhofer Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Germany

The Fraunhofer Society Germany has developed through its institute IBMT together with industrial partners a fully integrated biobank platform comprising cryobiological, IT, and storage solutions for high quality cryo-biobanking at temperatures below -150°C. The presentation will describe the components of the platform as well as the use case of the HIV Specimen Cryorepository of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Close of Conference