The Europe Biobank Week (EBW) Congress, jointly organised between BBMRI-ERIC (the European Research Infrastructure for Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources in Health and Life Science) and ESBB (the European, African and Middle Eastern Society for Biobanking and Biopreservation) took place from 14-17 May at The Hofburg Conference Centre in Vienna, Austria.

The theme of the 2024 congress was: “Strengthening Biobanks and Biorepositories: Collaborative approaches for a sustainable future” with sessions that covered the latest developments together with fundamental biobanking topics. This edition was particularly special, as it marked the first in-person congress following the COVID-19 pandemic, with over 600 delegates in attendance, including more than 40 exhibitors and 13 sponsors.

Five expert workshops, 87 oral and 140 poster presentations were delivered over three days.

On Tuesday 14 May, five pre-congress workshops focused on sharing knowledge and best practices in detail. The first workshop, “Making your way to ISO 20387 accreditation”, addressed the challenges and opportunities presented by ISO 20387 accreditation. “Information security issues for biobankers + BBMRI-ERIC Federated Platform” included updates on the BBMRI IT ecosystem and broader information security measures impacting the community. The “Greening of Biobanking” workshop focused on current and future carbon reduction and sustainability perspectives for biobanks in a  global context.  “Ethics of AI: Hypes, Hopes, and Risks of AI in Biobanking” examined the ethics of Artificial Intelligence in the health and life sciences. Lastly, “Citizen & patient involvement in biobanking. Discuss the need and feasibility with us!” was geared to patient representative organisations and coordinated by the BBMRI-ERIC Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar.

Dr. Ayat Salman, President at ESBB and Prof. Jens K. Habermann, Director General at BBMRI-ERIC, who led the joint organising committee opened the congress on 15th May. The opening speech was delivered by Prof. Martin Polaschek, Austrian Federal Minister of Education Science and Research. Minister Polaschek highlghted the value of joining forces, going beyond borders and continents in the biobanking field and the urge to tackle and globally address the theme of the datafication of biobanks. He also remarked on the importance of the partnership between BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB that has allowed the global biobanking community to come together.

The first session of the EBW scientific programme was the keynote delivered by Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank. The subject of his talk was “Biobanking for Precision and Genomics Medicine. UK Biobank: scale, depth, duration … but, most importantly, accessibility”.

After the speech, Sir Collins highlighted the achievements of the UK Biobank and underlined the importance of making data and samples available to scientists worldwide. He also remarked on how crucial the concept of trust is in the fields of biobanking and scientific and medical research.

The scientific programme of 17 May opened with the Ethics café, chaired by Dr. Michaela Th. Mayrhofer, Head of BBMRI-ERIC ELSI, and Dr. Pieter Moons, from Biobank Antwerpen. The session facilitated an exchange of thoughts and knowledge about pressing ethical issues.

 

More information at website https://www.europebiobankweek.eu/