News from our National Nodes
BBMRI.at: COVID-19 nasal spray
‘Replacing FFP2 masks by a nasal spray' - this is the aim a young start-up company from Upper Austria wants to achieve with the help of BBMRI.at partner Medical University of Graz.
At the high security BSL-3 facility of the Medical University of Graz research with highly infectious viruses like the SARS-CoV-2 virus is carried out - including on a protein found in bananas that can neutralize SARS-CoV-2.
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BBMRI.at: Watch the video „EFRE success stories from Styria (Austria)"
Biobank Graz, BBMRI.at and BBMRI-ERIC are located at the ZWT – Center for Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Medicine – at the Med Uni Graz Campus. Many established and start-up companies have their offices and laboratories at the ZWT, too. A new video gives showcases of the ZWT and what the tenants are working on. Biobank Graz took part in the shootings for this video.
Watch the video (in German)...
BBMRI.ch: Read the most recent newsletter from Swiss Biobanking Platform
Our Swiss National Node colleagues published their latest newsletter early June. Get more about their activities, discover the new exploration and communication NExT platform and the network of labelled biobanks registered . A video tutorial will get you started in less than two minutes.
Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!
SBP NExT is still in development (beta), so try it, break things and help SBP to make it as useful as possible.
Read more...
BBMRI.de/German Biobank Node (GBN): The German Biobank Alliance (GBA) continues to grow
The GBA welcomes 15 more biobanks to its network. Four years after its founding, the GBA encompasses biobanks at almost all German university hospitals. Academic biobanks at 35 sites and one IT development centre are now working together in the network coordinated by GBN. GBA biobanks establish joint quality standards and network via an IT infrastructure. They thus offer ideal conditions for cross-biobank collections of biospecimens.
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BBMRI.de/German Biobank Node (GBN): New "success story" from COVID-19 research
In a severe course of COVID-19, the immune response is caught in a continuous loop of activation and inhibition. Experts presented these findings in the scientific journal Cell. The Central Biobank Charité/BIH, GBA partner since 2019, was responsible for the biosamples from the Berlin cohort. “An important aspect of biobanking for this project was the preparation of blood samples for CyTOF analyses. We had to fix and process living blood cells with highest accuracy, precisely adhering to specific reaction times before freezing them at -80 degrees Celsius,” coordinator Dr. Denise Treue says.
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BBMRI.de/German Biobank Node (GBN): Study on the usage of biobanks published
In an anonymous online survey, GBN asked ”potential biobank users” – researchers who work with human biospecimens – about the usage of biobanks. The results of the study have now been published in the European Journal of Human Genetics, a central conclusion being that the visibility of biobanks must be increased. Biobanks may also need to adapt their collection strategies.
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BBMRI.nl: Patient and Public Advisory Council (PPAC)
The Dutch Patient and Public Advisory Council (PPAC) is set up by BBMRI.nl to safeguard the roles, interests, concerns and needs of patients and the public in biobank research. With the imminent converging of BBMRI.nl into Health-RI, the PPAC will expand its focus beyond biobanking and will include other elements of the research infrastructure to bridge the gap between professionals and citizens and to ensure that the ideas and concerns of the public are heard. The PPAC recently wrote an article aimed at a lay audience clearly explaining biobanks and why they can be of vital importance to everyone. The article was published in the June issue of a magazine for pensioners with a high print run. Next, the PPAC is busy planning a webinar on biobanking.
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BBMRI.nl: Recommendations for a Dutch sustainable biobanking environment
By sharing the result of this BBMRI.nl project's approach, outcomes, and recommendations, we will hopefully support other countries in their efforts toward sustainable biobanking. The recommendations in this publication serve as a guideline for the Dutch biobanking community and their stakeholders to work jointly toward practical implementation and a better biobanking environment. There are undoubtedly parallels between the Dutch situation and the challenges found in other countries.
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BBMRI.no: Biobank Norway is excited to welcome Anne Jorunn Vikdal as new Quality Manager
Anne Jorunn has a background as Biomedical Laboratory Scientist, and holds a master degree in Molecular Medicine. She has been working as a laboratory engineer at HUNT Biobank, NTNU, since 2007, and have today both a position as engineer and project coordinator.
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BBMRI.tr: Biobanking training for future physicians
A functional biobank is highly dependent on the collaboration of healthcare professionals and researchers, along with other biobank professionals. However, there may be some barriers to the involvement of clinicians in biobank operations, such as lack of awareness, time and financial constraints, potential difficulties in the communication with patients and obtaining informed consents. Regarding this, one of the most effective ways to enhance biobank practices may be increasing the awareness of biobanking for among current and future healthcare practitioners, especially clinicians.
BBMRI.uk: Save the date for the UK Biobank Showcase: 19-21 October 2021
Organised by the UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre, the UK Biobanking Showcase is the UK's leading event for those who work in biobanking and human tissue research. Full details to follow soon!
In the meantime, you can read about our 2020 Showcase highlights and access our Youtube playlist to view recordings of last year's sessions.
Project News and Partners
EOSC-Life: LifeMonitor focuses on Workflow test monitoring and integration with WorkflowHub and RO-Crate
The LifeMonitor is a service developed in EOSC-Life WP2 to support the sustainability and reusability of published computational workflows through long-term periodic testing and workflow analysis. Though the project is just one year old, an early alpha release was made available in May 2021. The service currently focuses on workflow test monitoring and integration with WorkflowHub through RO-Crate.
Read more...The Latin America-Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures took place from 15 th to 17 th of June as an online meeting, with more than 300 attendees most of them from Latin America and Europe and excellent speakers from 13 countries representing research organisations, policy makers and research infrastructures.
It was reflected that there is high motivation to foster cooperation between Latin America and European research infrastructures and to strengthen the existing ones.
EU is ready to support cooperation by developing bilateral R&I roadmaps with priority on non-EU countries and Horizon Europe programme is more open with strategically targeted actions. Our next symposium will be the the Australia-Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures on 5-7 October 2021. Save the date! More information to come soon .
BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB hold biobanking workshop for Latin American audience
Within the RI-VIS Latin American-Europe Symposium on Research Infrastructures, BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB held a joint workshop titled “Prerequisites for biobanking collaborations and advancements across continents” on June 16th. BBMRI Director General Jens Habermann introduced BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB President Rosita Kammler introduced ESBB. Then teams from both organizations instructed the participants on “How to build a biobank” and “Pre-analytics and Quality”, with time for questions and answers. The 30 participants to the workshop were engaged and interested in learning from our experiences.
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