UK Biobanking Showcase 2016

On the 16^th November BBMRI.uk held their second ever annual meeting at the oval Cricket ground in London. The day kicked off with a brief introductory video on the centre; Professor Dame Jessica Corner, Pro-Vice-Chancellor at The University of Nottingham then opened the day with her thoughts on the initiative stating that human tissue donations are a precious resource which should be made more accessible for research.

Peter McIntyre, journalist at CancerWorld then went on to discuss observations from his article Unlocking progress: why we need to change the culture of biobanking making the point that “Good Biobanks put patients first”. A panel discussion on the topics raised followed, including the incentives that drive research and hinder sharing to the data that is needed to get optimum use from samples. “No amount of data is enough” was one valuable point made by John Spaull (GSK).

Representatives from Innovate UK, Genomics England and ABPI all presented their views on Biobanking. A series of Biobanking debates including the chance to vote made the day interactive.

BBMRI.uk Director Phil Quinlan opened the afternoon with a quick introduction to the centre and demo of the UK’s directory. Matt McLoughlin presented how scientist.com can approve Biobanks for supplying to industry. Andrea Wutte from BBMRI-ERIC in traduced BBMRI and their role in defining quality standards across Europe. The afternoon ended with interactive sessions, featuring ELSI, The biobank boardgame and CM-Path.

After some closing remarks by Professor Brian Davidson the hotly contested Biobank of the year Award was presented to Ethical Tissue! Find out about their work here.

You can watch all the videos from the day on our youtube channel and read more here.