Abstract
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For those reasons, the opportunity to join forces with BBMRI-ERIC and ESBB to establish the first Global Biobanking Week (GBW) in Stockholm, Sweden, from September 13–15, 2017, was an opportunity not to be missed. The theme of the GBW is the following: Towards Harmony in Biobanking. As disease and global health cannot see borders, we must promote harmonization of quality biobanking activities around the world. The meeting is intended to provide a global platform for detailed and comprehensive discussion and collaboration on important biobanking and biopreservation activities to improve health care; decrease the burden of disease worldwide; and preserve biodiversity.
The Program is being co-chaired by Marianne Henderson (ISBER) and Balwir Matharoo-Ball (ESBB). The conference will bring together biobanking experts, scientists, policy makers, and patient representatives to discuss the future challenges for biobanking, including global harmonization, best practices, reproducibility of data, donors rights, and public trust, as well as environmental issues: all in an effort to enhance and foster networking and international collaboration. We expect that this conference will highlight ideas and innovations from the best and the brightest across the spectrum of biobanking. It will bring the best features of each organization's meetings together under the umbrella of the GBW. The meeting model will allow many more people to submit abstracts to speak on the podium during concurrent sessions; there will be invited presentations introducing each session, and speakers for each session will be chosen from the abstracts submitted. In addition, there will be a poster session. There will be plenary sessions that will highlight precision medicine as well as the International Biobanking Summit VI. One of two plenary keynotes will be delivered by Dr. Jan-Eric Litton and will focus on sharing information and research around the world. There will be an Ethics Café and an innovative participatory exercise for conference participants called The Route-Return of Research Results-Incidental Findings, which will take place in the exhibit area. There will be workshops on “How to build a modern biobank” and “How to structure IT for biobanks.” A session on Innovative Technologies for Biobanking is seeking presentations of new and innovative technologies in biobanking. The leaders of ISBER, ESBB, and BBMRI-ERIC will award the Presidents' Prize for the best innovation presented. An optional visit to the SciLife Lab and Karolinska Institute biobank is also being planned. Regarding social events, there will be a Welcome Reception, Gala Dinner, and optional Harbor Cruise for participants. These events plus the organization of the program should provide ample time for networking between participants in the conference.
Global Biobank Week is expected to attract participants from around the world, representing the wide variety of stakeholders in biobanking. Biobanking has evolved into a dynamic, complex, and quickly changing activity worldwide. This new age of global collaboration and integration will allow focus on areas ripe for discovery and novel innovation that will focus and drive further research. This collaboration between ISBER, ESBB, and BBMRI-ERIC will facilitate progress in biobanking and biopreservation.
Further details about the meeting as they evolve can be found at www.globalbiobankweek.org. Key dates to remember are that online registration has opened and early-bird registration closes on July 15, 2017. Abstract submission has opened as of February 1, 2017 and will close on May 1, 2017.
Another aspect of ISBER's global reach is being realized in a collaboration with the Society for Cryobiology, which will enable ISBER involvement in CRYO 2017, which will take place in Heifei, China, from July 20 to 24, 2017. The theme of the meeting is Cryopreserving and Banking Bioresources for Advanced Research, Modern Agriculture, and Precision Medicine. ISBER will be hosting one plenary session, in which Dr. Jim Vaught, Past President, will be speaking about biobanking practices past, present, and future worldwide, and Dr. Zisis Kozlakidis, President-Elect, will provide a comprehensive orientation to ISBER and its activities. There will also be an ISBER workshop entitled Biorepositories 101, in which Dr. Bill Grizzle and Kathy Sexton will provide a short course on biobank design and management. A presentation on ISBER Best Practices will be part of the workshop as well. All these are designed to educate researchers in China and from elsewhere on important concepts in biobanking and the value of ISBER membership in promoting quality biobanking worldwide.
While primarily focused on biopreservation, CRYO 2017 will provide the membership of all the societies involved the benefits of mutual interaction leading to possible collaboration, exposure to cutting-edge research and new information, and opportunities to learn from each other and to apply that information to their distinct disciplines. The scope of the meeting will cover the science of cryobiology, cryopreservation and biobanking, cryotherapeutic intervention and cryosurgery, natural systems adaptation, and emerging technologies in cryobiology. Additional information can be found at the Society for Cryobiology website (www.societyforcryobiology.org).
Following a very successful annual meeting of ISBER held in Berlin in April 2016, we are continuing our strategic initiative to go global, and we invite you all to participate with ISBER in these two international events.
Bear in mind that if you are not able to attend either of these meetings, there is also the ISBER 2017 Annual Meeting in Toronto, May 9–12, 2017, which will also be a global event!