BBMRI-ERIC Podcast (BBMRI-ERIC)

Visit day one of the Europe Biobank Week Congress in this mini-series covering the event - part of the BBMRI-ERIC Podcast. 

Europe Biobank Week Congress is happening in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024. You’ll hear a flavour of the event and key interviews with organisers, speakers and delegates. 

EBW, organised by BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB, is the most important event of the year for the global biobanking community. The congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research by featuring keynote presentations, panels and workshops. 

This episode features Prof. Jens K Habermann, BBMRI-ERIC Director General, and Dr. Ayat Salman, ESBB President, who discuss the significance of the congress. You will also hear from Roland Leiminger and Rolf Morselt who are steering committee members and facilitate sponsorship support of the congress.

More information: www.europebiobankweek.eu

Twitter: twitter.com/BiobankWeek

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/europe-biobank-week 

“Healthcare biobanking and healthcare biobanks are playing an increasingly important role, not only in the biomedical research, but also in transferring knowledge to the health system”. Marialuisa Lavitrano, National Node Director, BBMRI.it.

This is part two of a two part podcast which shares impact stories from across BBMRI-ERIC’s Member States and communities that were presented at the BBMRI-ERIC 10th anniversary workshop. Each story highlights the diverse expertise and significant impact of the research infrastructure that our community helps shape and benefits from.

In this episode, you will hear impact stories from Quality Management and Biobanking Development, presented by Andrea Wutte, Head of BBMRI QM, and Saba Abdulghani, Head of BBMRI Biobanking Development.

You will first meet Lila Kallio, Auria Biobank Director and Marialuisa Lavitrano, National Node Director of BBMRI Italy. 

Then you will hear impact stories from Katerina Novakova, representing BBMRI Czech Republic and Maria Judit Molnar, National Node Director of BBMRI Hungary. 

Listen to part one to hear stories from our IT Service and ELSI services and research.  

 Learn more about BBMRI-ERIC: https://www.bbmri-eric.eu

Visit day two of the Europe Biobank Week Congress in this mini-series covering the event - part of the BBMRI-ERIC Podcast. 

Europe Biobank Week Congress is happening in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024. You’ll hear a flavour of the event and key interviews with organisers, speakers and delegates. 

EBW is the most important event of the year for the global biobanking community. The congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research by featuring keynote presentations, panels and workshops. 

This episode features contributions from:

• Professor Martin Polaschek, Austrian Federal Minister of Education Science and Research 
• Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank 
• Dr Annelies Debucquoy and Dr Ronny Baber, EBW24 Programme Committee members
• EBW24 congress delegates
• Francesca Trapani, Scientific Director/ Group Leader presso Boehringer Ingelheim
• Kirsten Tief-Kuery, Sales Leader Genetic Analysis EMEA, Thermo Fisher Scientific 
• The Lerchenfeld Quartett 

More information: www.europebiobankweek.eu

Twitter: twitter.com/BiobankWeek

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/europe-biobank-week 

The Lerchenfeld Quarter: lerchenfeldquartett.com

“I would say that being in BBMRI-ERIC is a very good thing: it makes you sure that you are doing great things and you are going along with other countries which are much bigger, with more resources, more scientist, everything more” Andres Metspalu, BBMRI.ee.

This is a two-part episode which shares stories from across BBMRI-ERIC’s Member States and communities that were presented at the BBMRI-ERIC 10th anniversary workshop. Each story demonstrates the wide-ranging expertise and impact of the research infrastructure that our community both shapes and benefits from. 

In this episode, you will hear impact stories from our IT and ELSI services introduced by Petr Holub, BBMRI-ERIC Chief Information Officer, and Michaela Th. Mayrhofer, Head of BBMRI ELSI. You will first meet Andres Metspalu, representing BBMRI.ee and Michael Hummel, representing the German National Node. 

These are followed by two impact stories from Annelies Debucquoy and Zisis Kozlakidis, respectively National Node Director for Belgium and IARC/WHO.

Look out for part two that will contain stories from Quality Management and Biobanking Development. 

Learn more about BBMRI-ERIC: https://www.bbmri-eric.eu 

The medical community is moving on a path towards more personalised and effective medical treatments and therapies for everyone. In doing so, it is crucial to integrate sex and gender into research as it has the potential to fuel structural and systemic change.

This episode of ELSI Dialogues explores how providing the research community with the resources and information needed to include sex and gender factors into their work will result in more inclusive and impactful results.

This topic is viewed from the perspective of researchers and healthcare professionals through subject areas including AI applications and nephrology.

Originally a live webinar, this podcast is presented by Janet Delgado with contributions from Melanie Goisauf and Mónica Cano Abadía.

Organoids are defined as three-dimensional (3D) cell culture systems that can be called “mini-organs” as they mimic some of the key multicellular, anatomical and even functional characteristics of real organs. Organoids are praised as a substitute for animal models in preclinical studies. At the same time, organoid technology raises issues around informed consent or privacy of donors.

This episode of ELSI Dialogues features multidisciplinary experts discussing ethical, regulatory, and scientific aspects of organoid technology. Following a brief introduction in organoid research, a special focus is placed on biobanking from the patient perspective. The panellists discuss trust, trustworthiness, therapeutic misconception, and the need for regulation. They also challenge definitions and the consequences of terminology such as ‘donation’ and ‘mini-organ’.

This is a collaborative effort between the ELSI Services & Research Department and the Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar of BBMRI-ERIC.

Originally a live webinar, the podcast is presented by Melanie Goisauf with contributions from Zisis Kozlakidis, María Berdasco Menéndez, Signe Mežinska, and Mike Lensink.

Welcome to this Europe Biobank Week Congress Radio special. It recorded live from the Europe Biobank Week Congress that happened in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024.

The EBW Congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research. Held over four days, it featured expert workshops, keynotes, over 85 oral and 140 poster presentations from across the biobanking community.

Keynotes are an opportunity to hear from leading experts in the field. This episode features the first keynote that was delivered by Sir Rory Collins, Principal Investigator and Chief Executive of UK Biobank.

About UK Biobank

The biobank involves 500,000 participants and it is the largest deeply characterised prospective study available for any type of health research that is in the public interest. More than 30,000 researchers worldwide currently use it and generated more than 3000 papers in 2023 alone.

The title of Prof. Collins' talk is ‘UK Biobank: scale, depth, duration … but, most importantly, accessibility’ and it was delivered to a packed plenary hall.

We interviewed Sir Rory to ask what he hoped delegates would take from his talk. You can find that piece within day two of #EBW24 Congress Radio found at europebiobankweek.eu. 

Resources

UK Biobank: www.ukbiobank.ac.uk

Sir Rory Collins EBW24 abstract: www.europebiobankweek.eu/ebw24-previews/ebw24-previews-keynote-with-sir-rory-collins/

Europe Biobank Week Podcasts: www.europebiobankweek.eu/tag/podcast/

Andrea Wutte, Head of Quality Management at BBMRI-ERIC meets José Antonio López-Guerrero, Scientific Director of IVO Biobank to learn about how his team achieved the biobanking quality standard ISO 20387. IVO had the key support of Manuel Llombart Fuertes, Director General of Fundación Instituto Valencia De Oncología. The episode is introduced by Eva Ortega-Paíno, Spain’s National Node Director. 

Theme music used with kind permission: 'i need a cup of coffee and some bread for wake up' by In Love With A Ghost

“Cancer is traumatising, and you want to forget it as soon as possible, but some of us believe our experiences can be useful for others.”

This first of a two-part episode looks at the work of the BBMRI Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar that brings together patient organisations from across Europe to help shape BBMRI’s biobanking related priorities and policies.

You will meet two members of the Patient Pillar:

• Kathi Apostolidis, Past President and Chair of the Scientific Committee of the European Cancer Patient Coalition - ECPC
• Dr. Stefanie Hourwaart, member of the Scientific advisory board coordinator for the BRCA Network, Germany and Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the German Biobank Node (GBN).

They explore, from their personal experiences, why patient advocacy and the Patient Pillar matters.

Listen to part two to meet Jana Pavlič-Zupanc, Head of Public Affairs at BBMRI-ERIC, and Eric Vermeulen, Chair of the Stakeholder Forum and Patient Pillar. 

You can find out more about the Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar on the BBMRI-ERIC website: https://www.bbmri-eric.eu/stakeholder-forum/

Visit the fourth and final day of the Europe Biobank Week Congress in this mini-series covering the event - part of the BBMRI-ERIC Podcast. 

Europe Biobank Week Congress is happening in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024. You’ll hear a flavour of the event and key interviews with organisers, speakers and delegates. 

EBW is the most important event of the year for the global biobanking community. The congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research by featuring keynote presentations, panels and workshops. 

This episode features contributions from:

• Prof. Josef Haas, Medical University Graz
• Naila Loudini, UMC Utrecht
• Nikolai Pace, University of Malta 
• Congress delegates: Stefan Kummer - VetBiobank, Julia Huber - Universitätsklinikum Freiburg - CCCF-Biobank, Massimiliano Borsani - CNR - BBMRI.it and Nhutuyen Nguyen - German Biobank Node

See you next year in Bologna, Italy, for #EBW25?

More information:

• EBW: europebiobankweek.eu 
• Twitter: twitter.com/BiobankWeek
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/europe-biobank-week 

The "Sex and Gender in Biomedical Research" webinar series, is "Visualising the Complexity of Sex Determination".

The speaker, Amanda Montañez, explains the webinar as follows:

At Scientific American, we communicate the latest and most important information about science, health, technology, the environment, and society to the public. We often use information graphics to help illuminate complex ideas that are hard to explain fully through words alone. A few years ago, as part of a special issue on sex and gender, I led the development of a graphic on the spectrum of biological sex, a fascinating topic that I had not seen visualized before and turned out to be even more complex than I had imagined. In this talk I will explain the process of how the graphic was developed, what I learned, and how this project fits into my work as a graphics editor at Scientific American.

Theme music used with kind permission: 'i need a cup of coffee and some bread for wake up' by In Love With A Ghost

Visit day three of the Europe Biobank Week Congress in this mini-series covering the event - part of the BBMRI-ERIC Podcast. 

Europe Biobank Week Congress is happening in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024. You’ll hear a flavour of the event and key interviews with organisers, speakers and delegates.  

EBW is the most important event of the year for the global biobanking community. The congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research by featuring keynote presentations, panels and workshops. 

This episode features contributions from:

• Dr. Ayat Salman, ESBB
• Dr. Gillian Barlett, Associate Dean for Graduate Research Education at the School of Medicine at the University of Missouri 
• Congress delegates - Michael Neumann and Marthe Bierens
• Poster and oral presenters - Annemieke De Wilde, Emanuel Sander, Andrea Wutte, Rogier van der Stijl and Bo Franzén

More information:

• EBW: europebiobankweek.eu 
• Research All of Us: www.researchallofus.org
• Minimally invasive fine needle aspiration-based molecular diagnostics in support of precision cancer medicine : https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38519839/
• Twitter: twitter.com/BiobankWeek
• LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/europe-biobank-week 

“I think an ELSI expert is often seen as a patch for projects from the natural sciences. You can ask this ELSI expert anything that has to be solved in a certain way, it has to be a yes or no answer, then it’s done and you never have to talk about it again.” 

This episode of the BBMRI-ERIC podcast joins the ELSI (ethical, legal, societal issues/implications) team from across Europe when they met in person for the first time since the pandemic.

You hear from Michaela Th. Mayrhofer, Melanie Goisauf, Kaya Akyuz, Monica Cano Abadia, Irene Schlünder, Ilaria Colussi, Ulrike Felt, Anna Clareborn, Olga Tzortzatou, Lisa-Maria Ferent, Isabelle Budin Ljøsne and Gillian Martin.

Over two intense days in Vienna, the team shared findings and identified priorities for the next year.

Learn more about ELSI: www.bbmri-eric.eu/elsi

Theme music used with kind permission: 'i need a cup of coffee and some bread for wake up' by In Love With A Ghost. 

“We realised we needed to start something new to address the medical research reproducibility crisis.”

Episode four of the BBMRI-ERIC podcast explores a paper that was recently published in Nature. It illustrates a lightweight distributed provenance model designed for complex, real-world, environments. 

The paper has been researched and written by a wide-ranging group of experts and two of them, BBMRI staff - Rudolf Wittner, IT Scientist and Petr Holub, Chief IT Officer - help to explain the model’s significance for biobanking, reproducibility and the broader field of medical research data.

You can access the paper here.

Theme music used with kind permission: 'i need a cup of coffee and some bread for wake up' by In Love With A Ghost.  

Welcome to this Europe Biobank Week Congress Radio special. It was recorded live at the Europe Biobank Week Congress that happened in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024.

The EBW Congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research. Held over four days, it featured expert workshops, keynotes, over 85 oral and 140 poster presentations from across the biobanking community.

Keynotes are an opportunity to hear from leading experts in the field. This episode features the second keynote of the congress, delivered by Dr Gillian Bartlett, Associate Dean for Graduate Research Education, University of Missouri and Co-Director of the SOM Umbrella PhD Program.

About underrepresented populations

The title of Dr. Bartlett’s talk is ‘Biobanking with Underrepresented Populations: The Critical Role of Participant engagement’ and it was delivered to a packed plenary hall. Dr. Bartlett underscores the importance of including still underrepresented populations in medical research with examples from e.g., the All of Us research programme.

Resources

All of Us Research Programme: https://allofus.nih.gov/

Dr. Gillian Bartlett EBW24 news article: https://www.europebiobankweek.eu/ebw24live/ebw24live-dr-gillian-bartlett-university-of-missouri-delivers-keynote-lecture-ii-biobanking-with-underrepresented-populations-the-critical-role-of-participant/

Short interview at EBW24:

https://www.europebiobankweek.eu/ebw24live/ebw24-live-congress-radio-europe-biobank-week-2024-day-three/

Europe Biobank Week Podcasts: www.europebiobankweek.eu/tag/podcast/

“This tissue is really representing the patient and that's what I find very interesting about biobanking. You don't need to be there to be in research.”

This is the second of a two-part episode exploring the work of the BBMRI Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar that brings together patient organisations from across Europe to help shape BBMRI’s biobanking related priorities and policies.

You will hear from Jana Pavlič-Zupanc, Head of Public Affairs at BBMRI-ERIC, who introduces the value of the Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar and what makes it unique amongst research infrastructures.

We are particularly delighted to introduce the new Chair of the Stakeholder Forum and SEAB member, Eric Vermeulen. Eric is an experienced patient advocate where he combines his background as a nurse with neonatal experience and as a sociologist. Eric has long been involved in BBMRI via the Netherlands National Node and Health-RI. 

You will hear from Eric how his work highlighted the importance of biobanking and the role he feels the Patient Pillar has in providing strategic direction for BBMRI on some key health topics.

You can find out more about the Stakeholder Forum Patient Pillar here.

Biobank legislation is not harmonised at the European Union level, and the Member States have taken considerably divergent approaches in how they regulate the field. Whereas some countries do not have specific regulations, others have adopted complex biobank laws.

This episode of ELSI Dialogues aims to present the unique legal framework for biobanking that is currently in place in Belgium. The Belgian Biobank law was first adopted in 2008, entered into force in 2018 and underwent an important reform in 2022. Moreover, the law is complemented by an essential piece of self-regulation, namely the Compendium on biobanks issued by the Federal Agency on Medicine Products and Health. The interplay with relevant data protection rules will also be the focus of our discussion.

Originally a live webinar, this podcast is presented by Ilaria Colussi with contributions from: Janos Meszaros, Teodora Lalova-Spinks, Introduction by Prof. Isabelle Huys 

“We as scientists, we as professionals, we as leaders have to first of all realise how the situation is changing, a change of epoch, and how to manage. Because for the first time, the dams that shaped our security are trying to break.”

This episode shares the keynote address delivered by Professor Walter Ricciardi at the BBMRI-ERIC 10th anniversary workshop. 

The anniversary event was held at the Permanent Representation of Austria to the European Union, Brussels on 29 February 2024 and brought together key members of the biobanking community to explore BBMRI-ERIC’s impact as a research infrastructure over the last ten years and look to the future. 

We were delighted, and privileged, that the 10th anniversary keynote was delivered by Prof. Walter Ricciardi who is the EU Cancer Mission Board Chair and Chair of the BBMRI-ERIC Scientific and Ethical Advisory Board. 

Walter has been a key advisor for BBMRI-ERIC over a number of years and shares our strong vision on the importance of health and life science research for societal wellbeing. He also understands the vital role that biobanks play in this. 

Prof. Ricciardi is full Professor of Hygiene and Director of the School of Hygiene and Public Health, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (UCSC) (Rome). He is Chair of Mission Board for Cancer (EC), Scientific Committee of Human Technopole Foundation, European Mission Board for vaccination. 

In this talk, Professor Ricciardi presents an urgent case for science in an age when we are facing multiple pressures on our health that is intrinsically linked to the health of our planet. 

You will hear him link to the EU Mission on Cancer and the vital role that policy makers play in supporting the work of research infrastructures, such as BBMRI-ERIC, to drive forward innovative approaches, standards and research into solving major health challenges.

Learn more about BBMRI-ERIC: https://www.bbmri-eric.eu 

Episode 12 introduces you to the canSERV project that focuses on providing over 400 cutting-edge and customised cancer research services. BBMRI-ERIC acts as coordinator for canSERV.

The services and tools are made available to the cancer research community EU wide, enable innovative R&D projects and foster precision medicine for patients’ benefit across Europe.

Experts from the project walk listeners through the Open Call - taking applications until 4 January 2024.

Originally a live webinar, the podcast is presented by canSERV consortium members Saba Abdulghani, Jens Habermann, Enzo Medico, Manuela Pausan and Judit Balogh. 

The Q&A that followed after is being developed into a FAQ. Explore the project, and apply to the Open Call, by visiting the canSERV website.

“I learned that health care has a share of 6 to 8% in our total energy consumption - equal to the aviation sector. Although as health care researchers, we need to face this reality and act.”

This episode of the BBMRI-ERIC podcast goes behind Amsterdam UMC’s recent win of the International Freezer Challenge to explore biobanking sustainability and carbon literacy.

Jörg Hamann, Head of the Biobank and Management Committee member for The Netherlands' BBMRI National Node, tells Saba Abdulghani, BBMRI’s Head of Biobanking Development, about the significance of the win - Europe's first hospital to achieve the award.

Saba is also joined by Phil Korbel, Co Founder and Director of Advocacy at the Carbon Literacy Project, who will be working with BBMRI to develop a certified Carbon Literacy Toolkit. This initiative will form part of the Green Label that will enable Biobanks to demonstrate recognised sustainability credentials. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications in medicine are hoped to improve healthcare and to advance health equity. While the technology carries the potential to improve health services, the ethical and societal implications need to be carefully considered to avoid harmful consequences for individuals and groups, especially for the most vulnerable. It is therefore inevitable to identify what types of ethical issues are raised by AI, and to analyse how these issues are tackled in biomedical research.

This webinar gives an overview of the results of a comprehensive and systematic review of academic literature as well as workshop outcomes. We will problematise approaches such as ‘trustworthy AI’ and ‘explainable AI’ that shape the ethics discourse on AI. The webinar concludes with a reflection on the topics identified that shape the understanding of ‘Ethics of AI’ and the gaps in the discourse. 

Theme music used with kind permission: 'i need a cup of coffee and some bread for wake up' by In Love With A Ghost

Welcome to this Europe Biobank Week Congress Radio special. It recorded live from the Europe Biobank Week Congress that happened in Vienna, Austria from 14-17 May 2024.

The EBW Congress highlights cutting-edge biobanking innovations and research. Held over four days, it featured expert workshops, keynotes, over 85 oral and 140 poster presentations from across the biobanking community.

This episode features the State-of-the-Art speech delivered by Dr. Bo Franzén, Senior Researcher at Cancer Centre Karolinska of the Karolinska Institutet, during the Quality Management and Pre-Analytics session. 

About Karolinska Institutet

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities. Karolinska Institutet accounts for the single largest share of all academic medical research conducted in Sweden and offers the country’s broadest range of education in medicine and health sciences. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet selects the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

The tilte of Dr. Franzén’s talk is: ‘Minimally invasive fine needle aspiration-based molecular diagnostics in support of precision cancer medicine’ and it was delivered in the Hofburg’s Zeremoniensaal.

Resources

Karolinska Institutet: https://ki.se/en

Minimally invasive fine needle aspiration-based molecular diagnostics in support of precision cancer medicine: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38519839/

Europe Biobank Week 2024 – Day Three: https://www.europebiobankweek.eu/ebw24live/ebw24-live-congress-radio-europe-biobank-week-2024-day-three/

Europe Biobank Week Podcasts: https://www.europebiobankweek.eu/tag/podcast/