REGISTRATION INFORMATION
The registration fee includes:
- Admission to all Plenary and Breakout Sessions
- Access to Exhibition and Posters Areas
- Conference materials such as the conference bag, digital book of abstracts and printed event guide
- Admission to the Welcome Reception on 9 October (drinks and appetizers will be offered)
- Coffee breaks and lunches for the conference duration
Registration Fees
| Registration Category | Until 26 July | 26 July - 4 October | On site |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delegate | 500€ | 590€ | 660€ |
| Member of ESBB | 400€ | 490€ | 560€ |
| Member of BBMRI-ERIC | 400€ | 490€ | 560€ |
| Delegate from lower-middle-income country* List | 250€ | 300€ | 340€ |
| Delegate from low-income country* List | 90€ | 150€ | 180€ |
| Patient organization and regulatory body representative* | 200€ | 250€ | 280€ |
| Student* | 50€ | 75€ | 100€ |
| One Day Pass | 220€ | 260€ | 300€ |
| Two Days Pass | 420€ | 490€ | 560€ |
| Function | Fee |
|---|---|
| Guided Tour | Included |
| Sightseeing Tour | 18€ |
| Pre-Conference Workshops | 50€ |
| Welcome Receptions | Included |
| Networking Dinner (delegate, member of ESBB, member of BBMRI-ERIC) | 50€ |
| Networking Dinner (other categories) | 35€ |
| Certified Dangerous Goods Training | 370€ |
| IATA Training | 305€ |
| Good Clinical Practice (GCP), Good Laboratory Practice (GLP), Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) | 390€ |
Discounted fees – eligibility criteria
*During your registration, please note that the following documentation will be required (depending on the selected category):
- Delegate from lower-middle-income country/ low-income country: copy of your passport
- Patient organization and regulatory body representative: letter from organization (in English)
- Student: valid student card (please note that PhD students are not eligible for this category)
Payment
All costs referred to are in EUR and all payments must be made in EUR.
Payment must be received prior to the conference. Delegates with outstanding payments will be asked for payment or a proof of payment onsite. If one of these cannot be provided, the delegate may be refused permission to attend the conference.
Please note that organizers do not accept conference registration fee payments by check.
The following payment methods are accepted:
- Wire transfer payments need to be processed within 15 days from receipt of the invoice and clearly mention the name of the attendee or the reference number. This method of payment is only accepted until 13 September. After this date, only credit card payments will be accepted.
- Credit card payments using the online payment system (Master Card, Visa, Visa Electron)
Cancellation policy
In case of cancellation, written notification should be sent to ebw2019@mci-group.com.
The following cancellation fees will apply:
- Cancellations received up to 12 July: full refund minus a 100€ administrative fee
- Cancellations received as of 13 July: no refund
Invitation letter
If you need a special invitation letter for you visa, please fill in the corresponding fields during your online registration.
You will be able to download the invitation letter from your registration confirmation email once the payment is received in full.
April 2019
Online registration launch
26 July
early-bird registration fee deadline
13 september
wire transfer payment option deadline
6 october
online registration deadline
8-11 october
onsite Registration
Christina Hvilsom is the Senior Geneticist at Copenhagen Zoo, leading the zoo’s genetics lab with particular interest in conservation genetics and population genomics. In this, she employs advanced analyses and statistical frameworks to analyse small to large scale datasets. Her research focus has been aimed at evolution, demography, adaptation, selection and conservation of the great apes. Christina is the chair of the Biobank Working group, directing a biobanking initiative established under the European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), which services more than 400 zoos and aquaria in Europe and the Middle East. The core focus of the EAZA Biobank is on population management and conservation research, with the collection empowering the use of molecular genetic data for use in guiding management, health and welfare practices for collections and species conservation.
Blazej Marciniak has graduated the Lodz University of Technology, worked in the SME sector and the “Start Ups” environment, from 2009 associated with the University of Lodz and from 2014 with the Biobank Laboratory. Manages Biobank’s IT resources and data (including genomics data derived from human). Currently managing digitalization Project “Digital sharing of biomolecular and descriptive resources of Biobank and Department of Anthropology, University of Lodz – characteristics of populations living in present-day Poland through the ages. Information platform e-Czlowiek.pl (e-Human.pl)”[more about project: https://bit.ly/2VCx0Q2], member of general assembly of BBMRI.pl on behalf of the University of Lodz, co-chair of ESBB Working Group Data Standardization & Harmonization, organizer of “BioNinja Challenge” a bioinformatics hackathon.
Dr Bartels qualified as a veterinarian and went on to complete a Master’s degree in Zoology. Paul started the Wildlife Biological Resource Centre (wBRC) as a working group of the Endangered Wildlife Trust and which was later transferred to the National Research Foundation. The wBRC later became known as the NZG Biobank. Dr Bartels has extensive experience in wildlife management, including game capture and translocation of wildlife. He is the recipient of the following awards: Mazda Wildlife Fund top South African conservationist of the decade; Wildlife and Environment Society of SA (WESSA) lifetime achievement Award; National Science and Technology Forum’s Science Engineering & Technology Award. Dr Bartels is a Board Member of the Magaliesberg Biosphere Reserve and a past board member of ISBER, ESBB and WESSA. In 2014, Paul joined the Department of Nature Conservation of the Tshwane University of Technology where he teaches undergraduate courses and supervises post-graduate students. In 2017, Paul was the recipient of the African Entrepreneurship Award.
Maurizio Lambardi is Senior Researcher of the CNR of Italy at the IBE (Institute for BioEconomy) of Florence. He has the National Scientific Qualification as ‘Full-Professor’ in the sector Arboriculture and Forest Systems. In the ISHS, he is the Vice-Chair of the Division ‘Plant Genetic Resources and Biotechnology’, and country representative for Italy. He is the former Director of the CNR-IVALSA (Trees and Timber Institute), and Chairman of the Society for Low Temperature Biology. He is presently General Secretary of the SOI (Italian Society of Horticulture), Coordinator of the Italian Working Group on “Micropropagation and In Vitro Techniques”, and Corresponding Academic of the ‘Accademia dei Georgofili’. Dr. Lambardi has wide-ranging expertise in plant biotechnology and in vitro culture systems. He has been invited speaker at many national and international congresses and post-degree courses, and is author or co-author of more than 170 scientific papers, reviews, books and book chapters on plant tissue culture, micropropagation, in vitro conservation and cryopreservation. He is presently member of the Editorial Board of several ISI Journals, such as Acta Physiologiae Plantarum, Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture, and CryoLetters.
Anna Chróścicka PhD, is a biotechnologist, specialist in cell culture and biobanking and quality manager in a tissue and cell bank. She is author and co-author of over 40 conference presentations (e.g. TERMIS, Biomaterials Congress, and Europe Biobank Week) and attended as speaker at several international conferences (e.g. European Conference on Biomaterials). Member of AoM BBMRI-ERIC.
Dr. Melanie Goisauf is a social scientist and serves as Research Officer at the European research infrastructure for biobanking BBMRI-ERIC. She is Visiting Researcher within the School of Geography, Politics and Sociology at Newcastle University and Lecturer at the Department of Science and Technology Studies at the University of Vienna. She studied Sociology at the University of Vienna and at Royal Holloway University of London, and completed the post-graduate programme „Sociology of Social Practice“ at the Institute for Advanced Studies (IHS) in Vienna. Melanie Goisauf holds a doctoral degree from the University of Vienna. Her dissertation was awarded the prize for best thesis in 2017 by the research network “Gender and Agency” of the University of Vienna. Her current research focuses on the ethical, legal and societal implications (ELSI) of biobanking and related questions of governance and data sharing. Her recent research activities include the implementation of public engagement events within the Austrian national node of BBMRI and of a Europe-wide survey to identify challenges arising from ethical and legal developments in the field of biobanking.
Dr. Zivile Gudleviciene was educated in Vilnius University, Faculty of Medicine (1988-1994 Diploma of Medical Doctor, 1994-1997 Specialization in Oncology). From 1998, she started her job at National Cancer Institute (NCI, Vilnius Lithuania) as scientist where she defended her PhD thesis on the HPV prevalence in cervical cancer of Lithuanian women in 2004. The main research areas were oncogenetics, investigation of HPV and cancer biomarkers.
Jenny Åkerblom is a certified IT engineer with significant experience developing computer systems for healthcare laboratory environments. In her current role as Head of Department at Biobanken norr in northern Sweden, she has been given the opportunity to run an innovation project that has opened up a whole new dimension – the one connecting computers to our reality. Through the use of holograms, the employees at Biobanken norr receive guidance in their daily work handling valuable research samples. Jenny’s hope is that we will see more of this technology in the healthcare sector in the future, as well as embrace it as a natural feature of our everyday lives.
In the 1980s, after working as a Registered Nurse, Lovice Sutherland completed a Bachelor of Applied Science: Midwifery Major, at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. After working for 7 years as a midwife she got married, moved to The Netherlands and made a carrier change. In 2012, when the Radboud Biobank was established Lovice joined the team. Since then she has become a member of the biobank management team and she is responsible for the Quality Management System. 
Liis Leitsalu is a Researcher and a Genetic Counselor at the Estonian Genome Center of the University of Tartu since 2010. Her work at the genome center focuses on behavioral research in genomics and the ethical, legal and societal issues related to the use of genomic information generated by the genome center. She holds a PhD in Gene Technology from the University of Tartu with her thesis on “Communicating genomic research results to population-based biobank participants”, and a MSc in Human Genetics from Sarah Lawrence College. Liis is a member of the Research Ethics Committee of the University of Tartu and a member of the ELSI working group at the European research infrastructure for biobanking, BBMRI-ERIC.
Dr. Jennifer E. Lutomski currently serves on the management team of the Radboud Biobank as ICT Coordinator. Her primary role is to synergize IT and research spheres to promote high quality data storage and handling. She also monitors the use of residual biomaterial in the Radboudumc. Jennifer has keen interest in spearheading data sharing initiatives and promoting transparency in scientific research.
Jose Antonio Carrillo Ávila obtained the PhD in Molecular Biology in 2003, studying genetic mobile elements and repetitive satellite sequences in genomes. During these years, he has taught genetics classes at the university and in different doctoral programs. He has participated in several national and European research projects. His research work has been carried out in the fields of genetics, microbiology and samples quality in biobanks. He has worked for 7 years in private companies in the development of diagnostic tests for infectious diseases, as manager of the Department of Molecular Diagnosis (2005-2011). As of 2011 to the present, he works in the molecular Biology department of the Andalusian Public Health System Biobank (Spain), focused on the development of molecular techniques and biomarkers analysis.
Heidi Wagner is the Program Manager for the GU Biobank at Princess Margaret Cancer Center, Toronto, Canada. She has over 15 years of experience working at large cancer care centers. Previously, Heidi has worked at MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX and Roswell Park Cancer Center, Buffalo, NY. Heidi obtained her BSc in Anatomic Pathology from Wayne State University, Detroit, MI and she is Board Certified by the American Society of Clinical Pathology.
Prof. Andres Metspalu, (MD 1976, PhD 1979) Head of the Estonian Biobank, Institute of Genomics, University of Tartu. He was a postdoc at Colombia and Yale University in 1981-1982. His main scientific interests are human genetics, genomics of complex diseases and population based biobanks and application of the precision medicine in health care, 1993-1994 at BCM, Houston, as a visiting faculty and year 2000 at IARC, Lyon, France as a recipient of the International VSS Award and in 2012 sabbatical at University of Lausanne. From 1996 to 2008 A. Metspalu was also the head and founder of the MD Center of the Tartu University Hospital. Metspalu is the past (2006) president of the European Society of the Human Genetics. 2010 he elected to the Estonian Academy of Sciences. His H-index is 102. He is serving in several national and international committees and has received among other awards and honors the Order of the Estonian Red Cross 3rd Class and L’Ordre des Palmes Academiques from the Republic of France. From 2010, he is Doctor Honoris Causa of Vilnius University.
Dr. Nahla Maher Afifi earned her MBBCh with honors from Ain Shams University, Egypt. She received her Diploma of Gynecology and Obstetrics from the same University and obtained her Master& Ph.D. of Anatomy & Embryology in 1996 from Ain Shams University under a joint supervision with University of Medicine and Dentistry, New Jersey, USA, in which she started her academic career as a Medical Researcher in the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology. She then served as Assistant Professor of Anatomy and Embryology at Ain Shams University, and Dubai Medical College for Girls, UAE. Dr. Afifi joined Qatar University’s in 1999 and was promoted to Full Professor in 2007. In November 2013 she joined Qatar Foundation as Scientific and Education Manager and currently she is the Director of Qatar Biobank. Dr. Nahla Afifi has numerous published researches in her field of expertise. She is a member in several International societies AAA, ASIP, ISBER & ESBB.
Merike Leego is currently Innovation Manager in EIT Health Scandinavia (https://www.eithealth.eu/) and project leader of EIT Health strategic activity “Registries and Biobanks in Transition “, which main aim is accelerating use of big data, biobanks and quality registers in development of new healthcare solutions by academia and industry. She has been working previously 15 years in Estonian national biobank in Tartu University, been actively involved in BBMRI-ERIC activities in Estonia (www.bbmri-eric.eu/) and was project manager in Estonia for EC funded project BBMRI-LPC (http://www.bbmri-lpc-biobanks.eu/), where one of the responsibilities was organising trainings for starting biobanks and composition of electronical handbook for the beginners.
Radka Kaneva, PhD is Professor of biochemisty at Medical University of Sofia and executive manager of the
Manuela Nagel studied agricultural sciences at the University of Gottingen, Germany. During her PhD she discovered her passion for seed science and long-term survival of plant genetic resources. At IPK Gatersleben (Germany) and the Millennium Seedbank of KEW Gardens (UK) she studied seed survival and combined her knowledge of quantitative genetics with biochemical perspectives. Since 2016, as head of the cryo- and stress biology group at IPK Gatersleben, she has managed the cryobank which preserves around 1,800 genotypes of potato, garlic and mint in cryo. Further, her research projects involve long-term storage of vegetatively-propagated crops, stress response and mechanisms during cryopreservation, the effect of endophytes and seed and pollen viability. 
Dr. Sandra Schläfle works as a Research Consultant at Nightingale Health, a Finnish company providing metabolic profiling for studies ranging from clinical trials to large-scale population cohorts. She holds a PhD in biotechnology from University of Hohenheim in Germany. At Nightingale she develops projects together with scientists from all over the globe, ensuring that high-quality metabolomics is becoming the standard for any blood sample collection and by that driving clinical translation and personalized medicine.
Philipp Ciba is biologist and expert in cell technology. He leads the work group for cell based species conservation at the Fraunhofer Research Insitution for Marine Biotechnology and Cell Technology and is manager of the German Cell Bank for Wildlife “Cryo-Brehm”. Coming from human adult stem cell research his work now focusses on cryopreservation and biobanking of cultured cells from various species aiming at improved methods and technologies for cryopreservation and storage of life cell material and the assessment of cellular changes resulting from these processes. Moreover, he is focusing on the development of cell based in vitro systems for veterinary diagnostics and vaccine development.
The major research focus of György Marko-Varga are clinical protein science, biobanking, and drug characterisation within cancerous disease. Since 1984, Marko-Varga has compiled more than 330 scientific studies that have been published in peer-reviewed international scientific journals. In addition, he has authored 21 book chapters and edited 2 books. To date, his outstanding research career in cancer has amassed more than 8,500 citations and resulted in an H-index of 43.7.
Elke Smits earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Leuven, a Master of Science in Biotechnology and a PhD in Veterinary Sciences in 1998 from the University of Gent in Belgium.
Margalida Esteva-Socias (Palma, Spain, 1993) obtained his bachelor of Genetics at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and master’s degree in Translational Biomedical Research at Vall d’Hebron Institute of Research, Barcelona. Her initial research projects, performed at the Hospital Universitari Son Espases (Palma) and Health Research Institute of the Balearic Islands (IdISBa) were focused on the evaluation of the clinical utility of EGFR as a biomarker in liquid biopsy of non-small cell lung cancer. She currently holds a grant from the Government of the Balearic Islands to work on her Ph.D. at the Pulmonary Biobank Consortium in the field of Biospecimen Science, focused specially on the optimization of tissue samples for the development and validation of disease biomarkers. Within this project she is collaborating with the Biospecimen Research Working Group of the Spanish Biobank Network.
Sabrina Schmitt graduated in biology from Heidelberg University and received her PhD in T-cell immunology which was followed by a postdoc position on wound healing mechanisms at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Luigi PALMIERI, PhD, is a Senior Researcher in the Department of Cardiovascular, Endocrine-metabolic Diseases and Aging of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS).
Since May 2016, Regina Maushagen is part of the biobank management team of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck (ICB-L) at the University of Lübeck and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Germany.
Iynas Elamin graduated in 2011 from the College of the North Atlantic (Canada) Doha-Qatar Campus, with a High Diploma in Medical Radiography. She started working in Hamad Medical Corporation, Qatar as a Radiographer in National Center for Cancer Care and Research, Heart Hospital and Rumailah Hospital, using deferent modalities such as like X-ray, CT scan, IDEXA and Fluoroscopy. In 2017, Iynas joined Qatar Biobank (QBB) a member of Qatar Foundation as a radiographer, working to collect research data for the QBB cohort study through IDEXA and ultrasound imaging. Iynas is currently undergoing training in technical MRI to support the advancements of the QBB cohort study with the introduction of an MRI and Cognitive Assessment visit. Iynas is passionate about learning and is interested to gain maximum knowledge in different modalities used in research to capture the best quality data.
Judita Kinkorová is currently the Manager of International Research Cooperation and Affairs at University Hospital in Pilsen and Charles University, Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen. She is the Manager of European project from FP7 (Framework programme 7) focused on biobanking infrastructures, BBMRI-ERIC in Pilsen, and she is a Manager of the Hospital Integrated Biobank at University Hospital in Pilsen.
Ann-Kristin Kock-Schoppenhauer started her studies in computer science in 2006 at the Universität zu Lübeck, Germany. She finished with a Master Degree in 2012 with the focus on Medical Informatics for Computer-Aided Medicine and Healthcare. Her master thesis has been rewarded by the GMDS e.V. Förderpreis and the ConhIT Nachwuchspreis. After a three-year period of academic research at the Institute of Medical Informatics at the Universität zu Lübeck, she switched to the clinical area to provide her knowledge to the IT Center for Clinical Research, Lübeck (ITCR-L).
Since February 2019, Friedemann Flügge is part of the biobank management team of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck (ICB-L) at the University of Lübeck and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Germany.
JH di Donato is involved in the development of Biological Resource Centres and biobanks since 25 years. She works on:
Since 2018, Project Manager for quality management and Coordinator of the biomarker evaluation study on behalf of the German Biobank Alliance (GBA) at the integrated biobank in Jena (IBBJ).
Martin Dugas received a doctoral degree in human medicine from the Technical University of Munich as well as a diploma in computer science from the Fernuniversität Hagen. He is currently a Professor for Medical Informatics and Director of the Institute of Medical Informatics (IMI) at the University of Münster. His research is focused on informatics for personalised medicine, in particular medical data models, electronic health records (EHRs), single source information systems, cancer genomics and next generation sequencing (NGS) data analysis. He has published 200 papers in peer reviewed journals and wrote a textbook about medical informatics.
Dr. Corné Swart is the Head of Business Development at Cellbox Solutions GmbH, where he works very closely with customers and collaborators on innovative projects that require the shipment of live cells and tissues using portable CO2 incubators. He has a background in Biotechnology, which he obtained from his studies at Stellenbosch University (South Africa) and Lund University (Sweden). After receiving his master’s degree from Stellenbosch University, he went on to receive a PhD from the University of Potsdam (Germany) for his work in the field of proteomics, that investigated the complex interplay between post-translational modifications and metabolism.
Sophia Turner has a background in biomedical sciences and 18 years of experience in designing, developing and delivering large-scale data and analytics solutions to drive efficiencies and growth for a large number of industries, services and technologies. Since her own cancer diagnosis, Sophia has specialised in the healthcare sector, leveraging a Business Intelligence and Epidemiological perspective on data combined with the scientific knowledge she gained in molecular biology wet-lab research.
Ayat Salman is a doctoral student at McGill University in the Department of Family Medicine and a consultant in biobanking sciences. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Anatomy and Cell Biology and her Masters Degree in Experimental Surgery from McGill. Her experience includes 10 years of clinical research experience, as a clinical research associate and 6 years of managerial experience with the HPB/Transplant Clinical Research Group at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). She has been a lead expert at the MUHC in Biobanking since 2011. She has established multiple biobanks within the MUHC since 2011. She is currently the Chair of the ISO 276 (Biobanking and Biotechnology) Mirror Committee within the Standards Council of Canada. She is also a member as well as ex-officio member of the ESBB Council since 2013 and now A Councilor since Spetember 2018. She is also co-chair of the Communications Committee at ISBER and Chair of the Social Media Working Group of ESBB. Her area of expertise focuses on the evaluation of biobanks in primary care within Quebec.
Since February 2015, Lena Figge is part of the biobank management team of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck (ICB-L) at the University of Lübeck and the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Campus Lübeck, Germany.
Ann-Kristin Kock-Schoppenhauer started her studies in computer science in 2006 at the Universität zu Lübeck, Germany. She finished with a Master Degree in 2012 with the focus on Medical Informatics for Computer-Aided Medicine and Healthcare. Her master thesis has been rewarded by the GMDS e.V. Förderpreis and the ConhIT Nachwuchspreis. After a three-year period of academic research at the Institute of Medical Informatics at the Universität zu Lübeck, she switched to the clinical area to provide her knowledge to the IT Center for Clinical Research, Lübeck (ITCR-L).
After completing her diploma in physics at Christian Albrechts University (CAU), Petra Duhm-Harbeck worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute for Pure and Applied Nuclear Physics at CAU and in the Department of Pediatric Cardiology and Biomedical Engineering at CAU. She gained further profound professional experience, e.g. in the areas of IT processes, business administration and project management, among others in the financial administration of the state of Schleswig-Holstein. From 2001 to 2010 she was Head of System Administration for the Clinics of Internal Medicine and the Central Laboratory at the University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH), Campus Kiel. She then switched to IT project management at UKSH Gesellschaft für IT Service mbH (UKSH ITSG). In close cooperation with the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck (ICB-L) and in cooperation with the UKSH ITSG, she has been coordinating the development and operation of a clinical research IT infrastructure since 2013 as the managing director of the central facility “IT Center for Clinical Research, Lübeck (ITCR-L)” of the University of Lübeck (UzL). Petra Duhm-Harbeck actively participates in national and international projects such as the BMBF projects GBA (German Biobank Alliance) and iD:Sem-EPP, the EU project ADOPT (BBMRI-ERIC Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure – European Research Infrastructure Consortium) as well as in working groups such as the “AG Consent” of the national steering committee of the BMBF Medical Informatics Initiative, the “AG Datenschutz” of TMF (Technology and Methods Platform for Networked Medical Research, Berlin) or the AG “ESBBperanto” of the ESBB (Europian, Middle Eastern &African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking).
Sara Y. Nussbeck is Head of the Central Core Facility UMG Biobank at the University Medical Center in Göttingen (UMG), Germany. Her background is in molecular biology and medical informatics. She was member of the ISBER and ESBB working groups Education and Training. Within the project „German Biobank Alliance“ funded by the German Federeal Ministry of Education and Research, she leads the work package on education and training.
Hélène Blanché is the CEPH Biobank Manager (since 2007). The CEPH Biobank is compliant, since March 2017 (Certificate # 170375/1366F), with the international quality standard ISO9001:2015, and the French Biological Resource Center quality standard NF S96-900 for the following biobanking services: reception, processing, storage shipment of human biological samples.
Merike Leego is currently Innovation Manager in EIT Health Scandinavia (
Pasquale De Blasio, is an international manager with more than 40 years experience in industrial and academic positions. He is a recognised International expert in the Biobanking field, being: Founding President of ESBB (European, Middle East and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking – 
Karin Müller is a staff scientist in the department Reproduction Biology of the Leibniz-Institute for Zoo- and Wildlife Research (IZW). She studied biology/ biophysics in Berlin, performed her PhD in 1996 on the functional significance of lipid asymmetry in mammalian sperm cell membranes. After working on (cryo)preservation and in vitro fertilization in domastic farm animals at the Institute for Reproduction of Farm Animals Schönow e.V. she changed 2007 to the IZW. Here she is responsible for the conservation of male gametes in the IZW cryobank and related research on spermatogenesis and sperm biology.
Patrick Semanda has an experience of 4 years with the National Bio repository which is attached to Central Public Health Laboratories/UNHLS, a government facility that oversees all laboratories at all government health facilities around the Country. The National Bio repository is mandated to store all remnants of clinical samples, surveillance and outbreak samples plus for different research groups. Samples in storage include HIV Viral load (DBS and Plasma), Hepatitis B viral load (Plasma), Sickle cell positives and Variants, Early Infant Diagnosis, Malaria samples and patient data for all HIV, Hepatitis B, EID, Sickle cell samples.
Sahar completed her Master’s Degree at Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences and Pasteur Institute of Iran where she gained her first biobanking experience. She then joined the Liu Lab Biobank as Biobank Coordinator in 2012. She brought seven years of experience in Biobanking to the team at CReATe in early 2017. She currently leads the CReATe Biobank and is responsible for the planning and execution of the activities required to achieve the goals, objectives, and outcomes of the Biobank. While working closely with CReATe researchers, she also conducts research on optimizing standard procedures in isolation and purification of Biobank samples.
Teodora Lalova is PhD Researcher at the KU Leuven, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy Unit (Leuven, Belgium) and Legal Fellow at the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC). Her doctoral project focuses on the legal frameworks for conducting clinical trials in the era of precision medicine, with a focus on the interplay with data protection legislation. She works under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Isabelle Huys (KU Leuven, Clinical Pharmacology and Pharmacotherapy), Prof. Dr. Peggy Valcke (KU Leuven, Centre for IT&IP Law), Anastassia Negrouk (EORTC) and Rosane Stas de Richelle (EORTC).
Rita T. Lawlor is a Computer Science graduate with a doctorate in Oncological Pathology. She is co-founder of the ARC-Net applied cancer research centre and is director of the ARC-Net biobank, coordinating research activities. She is a member of the steering committee of BC-NET (Biobank Cohort Network of Low Middle Income Countries) of IARC (International Association for Research on Cancer). She is a former director of ISBER, International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories and is past president of ESBB, the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking. She is IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) CIPP/E and CIPM certifications for European data protection and is chair of the ISBER GDPR Task Force. Her current research interests are in molecular diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets and the role of cancer heterogeneity and molecular characterization of samples in the application of individualized medicine.
Mark Divers is Director of Karolinska Institutet Biobank, in Stockholm, Sweden, where he has led the implementation of large-scale biobanking for almost 10 years.
Christiane Hartfeldt is the Coordinator for Quality Management at the German Biobank Node (GBN) since 2017. She is a member of the QM core team at the German Biobank Node. The team is working amongst others on harmonisation and improvement of national biobank processes by various ring trials and on a concept for cross-biobank audits.
Dr. Oliver Karch is a Medical Informatician by training. He is heading the Clinical Biomarker Informatics and Biobanking group at Merck, Darmstadt. The group manages globally clinical biomarker data as well as the samples collected in Merck’s multi-centric clinical studies. He joined Merck in 1998 as Bioinformatician to walk all the way from early drug discovery to clinical biomarker and companion diagnostics development. Before joining Merck, he pursued his PhD at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg. He was cofounder of a few startup companies in the healthcare sector. He is actively involved in several IMI (Innovative Medicines Initiative) Projects and ESBB/ ISBER/ EFPIA interest groups to foster cross-talk and harmonization among academic and pharma Biobanks.
Luca Sangiorgi holds a Medical Degree from the Bologna University, a Clinical Genetics PhD at “La Sapienza” Rome University and a Master Degree in Research Promotion and Governance in Hospital Trusts and Local Health Units at the Modena and Reggio Emilia University. He is Head of the Medical Genetics and Rare Orthopaedic Diseases Department of the Rizzoli Orthopedic Institute in Bologna. He is Coordinator of the Rizzoli Rare Disease Center and the Regional Hub and Spoke Network on Rare Bone Disorders. He coordinates four Rare Disease (RD) National Registers and BIOGEN biobank, and, since 2018, he took over the coordination of the Telethon Network of Genetic Biobanks. He is also the current Coordinator of the BBMRI-ERIC RD Interest Group and of the BBMRI.it RD working group. Finally, he is the ERN BOND Coordinator. He has been appointed President of Connective Tissue Oncology Society and International Skeletal Dysplasia Society.
Rolf Morselt – Sales Manager Europe & Africa Life Sciences for Worthington Industries.
Helmuth Haslacher MD PhD MSc BA is a resident physician for medical and chemical diagnostics at the Medical University of Vienna and trained in human medicine, molecular biology, and political science. He is deputy coordinator of the hospital-based MedUni Wien Biobank (
Prof. dr. P. Pauwels obtained his MD certificate at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1985. After a two years fellowship in Internal Medicine, he started a residency in Pathology at the University of Leuven. He then worked as a staff pathologist in Eindhoven till 2002. He went to the Maastricht University Medical Center till 2005. From 2005 till 2009 he was pathologist at the Ghent University Hospital. Since 2009 he works at the Antwerp University Medical Center. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden in 2004 in the field of molecular pathology (“Bridging the gap between cytogenetics and pathology of soft tissue tumors”).
Lei Tian is a Tehnician of Pancreas Biobank of the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University. During her Master’s Degree, her major focused on pancreatic cancer and tumor microenvironment, and multiple journals about pancreatic stellate cells were published. After graduation, Lei worked for the Pancreas Biobank and she presented several abstracts during a multitude of biobank meetings.
Isabel Novoa helps biomedical researchers get the best work in the biomarker discovery field to improve healthcare within her role as Director of a Biobank Facility that provides expert processing services of patient-derived samples.
Dr. Vincent von Walcke-Wulffen studied at the University of Hamburg Business Administration with a minor field of study in chemistry. In 2004 he became a research assistant and doctoral candidate at the Fraunhofer Institute of biomedical engineering (IBMT) in the working group “Cryobank”, responsible for legal and administrative aspects of the Fraunhofer Biobank “Eurocryo”. Later he became responsible for all technical and transport aspects of the biobank.
Sue is head of the Bristol Bioresource Laboratories (BBL) (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/population-health-sciences/research/groups/bblabs/) and Executive Director (Bioresource) of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) (http://www.bristol.ac.uk/alspac/). She has over 22 years of experience of biobanking and managing sample resources for epidemiological studies. She established the DNA and lymphoblastoid cell line banks for the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) and 1958 birth cohort studies which have been widely used by the research community across the world.
Ms. Henderson is Senior Advisor for Division Resources, Division of Cancer Epidemiology and Genetics and Senior Advisor on Biobanking, Center for Global Health of the U.S. NCI. She supports large program and contract management; and infrastructure planning for molecular epidemiology. She is active in the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) (ISBER President 2011-12 and current Chair of the OAC). She was a member of the NIH AllofUS Program – Biospecimens/Phys Meas. working group; and is currently a SC member and E&T Chair of the IARC-led LMIC Biobank and Cohort Building Network (BCNet); She sits on several editorial and scientific advisory boards, including Biopreservation and Biobanking, and the Victoria Cancer Biobank Business Panel. Ms. Henderson is actively involved in large-scale biospecimen process improvements in operations, technology transfer, sustainability and repository automation.
Julia Schlicht has been Chairwoman of the Executive Board of the Foundation Human Tissue and Cell Research (“HTCR”) since 2016. HTCR promotes in vitro research with Human Biospecimens as an independent trustee and agent of patients` tissue donations within the scope of a regulated application and usage procedural framework. At the same time, Julia Schlicht is pursuing her doctoral thesis as a research associate of Prof. Dr. Andreas Spickhoff at the Chair of Civil Law and Medical Law at the LMU Munich. (During EBW 2019, she will be co-chairing the session “Environment, Biodiversity and Human Health”.)
Elena Popova is a Senior Scientist and Head of National Plant Cell Collection at the Institute of Plant Physiology of Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, Russia. For two decades, her research career has been devoted to biobanking genetic diversity of crops and endangered plant species with particular interest in cryobiotechnology and in vitro cultures. Elena has worked as a Genebank Program Scientist at the international organization Global Crop Diversity Trust (Germany), as a researcher at the University of Guelph (Canada), National Agrobiodiversity Center, Korea Forest Research Institute and Chungbuk National University (Korea) building cryobanks and adapting in vitro and cryopreservation technologies to different plant species. Elena studied biotechnology and engineering in Moscow and has Ph.D. in Plant Physiology and Biochemistry.
Prof. Dr. Johannes Schenkel, Biologist, specialist on Laboratory Animal Science. Since 1989 specialized on Mouse Genetics, Generation of new transgenic Models and archiving of stablished GM mouse lines at Heidelberg University, Karlsruhe University and the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg. Since 2003 Head of the Cryopreservation Unit at DKFZ, responsible Course Organizer of the FELASA accredited course on Laboratory Animal Science. Venia legendi in Physiology; Chairman of the Alliance of German Cryobanks (GDK) since 2013; Head of the Genetics Committee of the Society of Laboratory Animal Science (GV-SOLAS). Member of the National Committee for Laboratory Animal Science in Berlin and of the Ethics Committee (§15 TierSchG) in Tübingen FR Germany.
Dr. Fiona R. Hay is a seed physiologist from Aarhus University in Denmark. Prior to moving to Denmark, she was deputy head of the T.T. Chang Genetic Resources Center at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines (IRRI) and before that, she was based at the UK’s Millennium Seed Bank. Her research has focused on improving genebank operations, through understanding of how to improve the quality of seeds before storage and modelling of the behaviour of seeds during storage.
Thorsten Buzug was born in Lübeck, Germany. He received his Ph.D. in 1993 in Applied Physics from the Christian-Albrechts-University of Kiel, Germany, where he worked in the field of signal processing applied to chaotic systems. From 1993 to 1994 he had a postdoctoral position at the German Federal Armed Forces Underwater Acoustics and Marine Geophysics Research Institute, where he worked on image acquisition and processing techniques for SONAR applications. In the end of 1994 he joined the Philips Research Laboratories Hamburg, Germany. He was the leader of the Philips Research Cluster Medical Image Processing. In October 1998 he has been appointed as professor of Physics and Medical Engineering at the RheinAhrCampus Remagen. In December 2006 he became Director of the Institute of Medical Engeneering at the University of Luebeck. 2011 – 2016 he served as Vice-President of the University of Luebeck. He is member of the National Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech).
Vita Rovite is head of Genome Database of Latvian population within the national biobank of Latvia since 2016. She is also involved in BBMRI.LV activities ensuring communication of National Node of Latvia with biobanking institutions in Latvia, organizing local conferences and seminars and introducing BBMRI-ERIC activities on national level. She has been actively participating in the working group for the development of Biobanking Law in Latvia whilst also being a member of BBMRI-ERIC Quality Management working group. Beside biobanking activities, Vita Rovite is molecular biologist with experience in functional genomic studies in fields of endocrinologic disorders, like obesity, diabetes, pituitary adenoma and autoimmune parathyroidism. She is currently the leader of several research projects in this field. 
Hildebrandt studied veterinary medicine at the Humboldt-University from 1986 -1992. His doctoral thesis (1987-1993) had the topic “Heterogenic ovarian transplantation in mouse, hamster and goat model” which was co-mentored by the academy institute “Forschungsstelle für Wirbeltierforschung” the predecessor of the Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (IZW). 1992 Hildebrandt was employed at the IZW and in 1997 became head of the department Reproduction Management. In 2012 nomination as Honorary Professorial Fellow of Melbourne University and re-nominated in 2017 for additional five years. 2015 Hildebrandt became a full professor for Wildlife Reproduction Medicine at the Freie Universitaet Berlin. He has written 156 peer reviewed publications, 23 book chapters and six patents. Hildebrandt is founding Diplomate European College Zoological Medicine, received numerous awards such as the Conservation Legacy Award, USA (2015), is honorary member of the British Society Reproduction Fertility (2018) and received the Honorary Fellowship Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (2012).
Professor Ryder oversees a highly productive laboratory group that includes activities in the areas of molecular genetics, genomic studies, and stem cell biology, benefiting from his long involvement with the Frozen Zoo® project, a unique resource of cell cultures that has made notable scientific contributions in the field of conservation and other biological disciplines. His professional career has been devoted to developing and applying genetic research methods in support of endangered species conservation efforts for species held in the Zoo and wild populations.
Dr. Lukasz Kozera (PhD, CSc Fellow) graduated from the department of biotechnology and medical diagnostics in Poland. Between 2005 and 2008, he finished his doctoral studies at the Institute of Cardiovascular Research, Faculty of Medicine and Health, University of Leeds, UK. After completing his two post-docs at the Molecular Rheumatology Unit (Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine), where he was managing tissue bank and a research program for the development of soluble biomarkers in rheumatoid arthritis, he decided to return to his home country. He established one of the first population-based and specialized biobanks in Poland (based at Polish Centre for Technology Development, PORT), dedicated to cardiovascular research and public health. The PORT Biobank became National Biobanking Node in 2016 and together with other biobanking units from Poland received a grant for the creation of Polish Biobanking Network BBMRI.pl. On the top of his scientific activity, Dr. Kozera is also a practicing clinical scientist at the Wroclaw University Hospital with a main interest in clinical biochemistry. 
Medical studies at the University of Würzburg (1984-1991), thesis 1991 (summa cum laude), licence to practice medicine 1992.
Carlo R. Largiadèr (CRL), PhD, is an associate Professor of Pharmacogenetics at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry (UKC) and the Center of Laboratory Medicine (ZLM) in Bern. He received his habilitation from the University of Bern in the field of population genetics. He is Deputy Director of the UKC and the ZLM at the Inselspital and the Head of the Liquid Biobank Bern (LBB; http://www.biobankbern.ch/). Carlo is also a member of the Executive Board of the Bern Center for Precision Medicine (http://www.bcpm.unibe.ch) and heads a research group in pharmacogenomics and drug metabolism at the UKC (http://tinyurl.com/ycvlyg6o). His research focuses on genetic and non-genetic factors/ mechanisms underlying inter-individual variability in drug response with a strong interest in translational aspects.
Dr. Ronny Baber works in the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry, and Molecular Diagnostics at the University Hospital Leipzig. He is the head of the Leipzig Medical Biobank and the LIFE-Preanalytical laboratory in the Leipzig Research Center for Civilisation Diseases (LIFE). Dr. Baber is a member of the working group in the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) which supports the ISO TC 276 responsible for the ISO norm 20387 on biobanking and BBMRI-ERIC workgroups for the evaluation of CEN standards. He is also part of the Steering Committee and different working groups in the “German Biobank Alliance” (GBA) initiated and coordinated by BBMRI.de trying to link GBA biobanks to the BBMRI-ERIC infrastructure. Since September 2017 he is designated as Treasurer of the ESBB.
Daniel Bos works in the Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry, and Molecular Diagnostics at the University Hospital Leipzig. He is the head of the Leipzig Medical Biobank and the LIFE-Preanalytical laboratory in the Leipzig Research Center for Civilisation Diseases (LIFE). Dr. Baber is a member of the working group in the German Institute for Standardization (DIN) which supports the ISO TC 276 responsible for the ISO norm 20387 on biobanking and BBMRI-ERIC workgroups for the evaluation of CEN standards. He is also part of the Steering Committee and different working groups in the “German Biobank Alliance” (GBA) initiated and coordinated by BBMRI.de trying to link GBA biobanks to the BBMRI-ERIC infrastructure. Since September 2017 he is designated as Treasurer of the ESBB.
Prof. Deltas studied Pharmacy at the University of Athens and he received his PhD in Biochemistry at Rutgers University, NJ, USA. He worked at the Jefferson Institute of Molecular Medicine, Philadelphia, PA, and at the Duke University Medical School, NC, USA. In 1991 he established his lab at the newly-created Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetic and in 2002 he was elected first Professor of Genetics and was instrumental in establishing the Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cyprus.
Laurent Dollé earned his PhD degree in Cell Biology and Life Sciences from the University of Science and Technologies of Lille (France) in 2003. After several positions at different Universities or Institutions of Belgium, Laurent has over 16 years of experience working in the Life Sciences field. In 2012, Laurent became Assistant Professor at the Free University of Brussels VUB), and developed several skills in stem cells isolation, maintenance and differentiation and was the first to identify liver stem cells from healthy non-manipulated livers by playing with an innovative technique based on Aldehyde dehydrogenase. Laurent Dollé is currently the Operating Director of BWB (Biobanking Wallonia-Brussels; Belgium), which regroups an impressive number of biobanks whose mission is to create and implement a virtual network to unify and make accessible human materials and associated data managed by the biobanks of Wallonia-Brussels’ territory.
Peter Riegman is a molecular biologist.
Kirstin Goldring graduated in Physiology and Pharmacology (BSc) and completed her PhD on asthma research at Southampton University.
Michael Hisbergues, holds a PhD in Microbiology and Molecular Biology. After a post-doc at the Humboldt University of Berlin on the development of molecular diagnostics tools for microbiological quality of water, he joined the Pasteur Institute on innovative vaccinologie vectors and further worked on inflammation and allergy treatments in pre-clinical models. In 2008, he was appointed Lab manager in a biotech company in Paris for the development of a biotechnological platform and the improvement of microorganisms of industrial interest. Since 2016, he joined the INSERM as project and consortium manager in the national infrastructure of Biobanking for the valorisation of biological samples/data from the french biobanks network in research projects with academics and industry. In 2017, he was appointed director of the french node of BBMRI-ERIC.BioResource project.
Sofie Bekaert is currently Manager Translational Program at the Flemish Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), where she coordinates the Grand Challenges Program and healthcare-related programs of the regional and national government.
Christine Currat is the Executive Director of Swiss Biobanking Platform. She graduated from Lausanne University in health sciences with a PhD in virology in 2004. In parallel, she obtained a master in health management, and entered the exciting field of biobanks in 2005. Her experience is mainly as a reference in the development of state of the art biobanks, first in oncology in 2007, then as a centralized institutional biobank in a hospital setting in 2013. In the Biobanking field, she implemented the first general consent for research purposes in Switzerland, and was also very active in biobank sustainability. This 11-year experience allows her to finally become the Executive Director of the newly created biobank coordination platform in Switzerland with the vision to promote access and usage of the existing and future banked bio-specimens for research purposes in the human as in the non-human fields. She is very interested in developing this platform in close collaboration with BBMRI-ERIC with the challenge to place Switzerland as an efficient partner in Europe.
Rita T. Lawlor is a Computer Science graduate with a doctorate in Oncological Pathology. She is co-founder of the ARC-Net applied cancer research centre and is director of the ARC-Net biobank, coordinating research activities. She is a member of the steering committee of BC-NET (Biobank Cohort Network of Low Middle Income Countries) of IARC (International Association for Research on Cancer). She is a former director of ISBER, International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories and is past president of ESBB, the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking. She is IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) CIPP/E and CIPM certifications for European data protection and is chair of the ISBER GDPR Task Force. Her current research interests are in molecular diagnostic markers and therapeutic targets and the role of cancer heterogeneity and molecular characterization of samples in the application of individualized medicine.
Michaela Th. Mayrhofer is a political scientist and historian by training. She was educated in Vienna, Louvain-la-Neuve, Essex and Paris. In 2010, she earned her PhD from both the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales and the University of Vienna, where she was shortlisted by the Austrian Society for Political Science for the ‘best thesis 2010’ young scientist award.
Karl-Friedrich Becker is a molecular biologist and heads the Laboratory for Experimental Pathology at the Technical University of Munich. His lab uses unique methods for protein analysis of tissues, e.g. extraction of intact proteins from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissues and Reverse Phase Protein Arrays (RPPA), for which he was awarded with the Novartis Research Prize for Pathology. Dr. Becker is Scientific Director of the Tissue Biobank of the Medical School of the Technical University of Munich.
Barbara Parodi, medical doctor, executive manager of the Biological Resource Centre of the IRCCS Ospedale Policlinico San Martino (CRB-HSM) of Genoa, Italy. I have been deeply involved in biobanking for many years, dealing with scientific, organizational, technical and ethical issues. My expertise is mainly in management, quality assurance and quality control in biobanks and biomolecular resources. I take part in the Steering Committee of BBMRI.it, the Italian National node of BBMRI-ERIC, with the role of project manager, chair of the Biobank evaluation committee and responsible of the common service quality, and I participate in several BBMRI-ERIC working groups on quality. I have participated in the OECD Task Force on BRCs (2001-2007) and I served as ESBB treasurer (2014-2017) and as ESBB liaison to ISO/TC 276 Biotechnology (2016-2017).
Since August 2014 Cornelia Specht is the Executive Director of the German Biobank Node (GBN, bbmri.de) at Charité in Berlin where she coordinates the central office of GBN and all activities within the German Biobank Alliance. Her entry into research infrastructure management started in 2003 as coordinator of the Competence Network Rheumatology and as CSO of the German Society of Rheumatology (DGRh). Her professional career started at Evotec- a biotech company for High Throughput Screening in Hamburg.
Since January 2012 Prof. Thomas Illig is the head of the Hannover Unified Biobank (HUB), the central biobank of Hannover Medical School (MHH) and he is founding member of the German Biobank Alliance (GBA); in March 2018 he has been appointed deputy coordinator of GBA.
Sabrina Schmitt graduated in biology from Heidelberg University and received her PhD in T-cell immunology which was followed by a postdoc position on wound healing mechanisms at the Heidelberg University Hospital.
Monique Oomen is a Research Technician for the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank/PARTS and Coördinator Clinical Trials Pathology at The Erasmus MC in Rotterdam. She started in 1992 at the Department of Experimental Urology and was involved in the research of different Prostate cancer projects. Together with Peter Riegman, Monique started the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank in 2001. She was involved in Tubafrost, a European project aiming to unite frozen tumor tissue banks into a network. In 2015 started a new core facility, called Pathology Research and Trial Service (PARTS), since that time the Tissue Bank is an integral part of PARTS. Monique became also Coördinator of the Clinical Trials within the PARTS facility. Monique has trained to be an internal auditor and partly responsible for the accreditation (ISO 15189) of PARTS in June 2019.
Karine Sargsyan, Managing Director of Biobank Graz, Medical University of Graz has contributed to and implemented numerous projects in the field of healthcare. She previously worked at the Division of Medical and Clinical Nutrition, and Metabolic Disorders at the Institute of Child and Adolescent Health and in the department of paediatrics at the Medical University of Graz. Since 2007 she is the managing director of Biobank Graz. Karine Sargsyan is a member of many professional societies, advisory boards of biobanks, author of numerous professional articles, as well as books/book chapters. She is serving as Visiting Professor of genetics at her Alma matter (YSMU) and does active volunteering in several organizations. Her professional career outside of academia includes consulting activities.
Dr. Elzbieta Gocek received her PhD in 2009 at the Faculty of Biotechnology, University of Wroclaw, Poland, defending thesis entitled “The role of vitamin D receptor, C/EBP transcription factors and mutations of acute myeloid leukemia cells during differentiation.” She completed post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Medicine & Dentistry, New Jersey Medical School (USA) and Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel). She has published over 20 publications and book chapters in the field of vitamin D-induced differentiation of cancer cells. In 2018 she became Head of Biobanking Laboratory at Lukasiewicz Research Network – PORT Polish Center for Technology Development. Her main scientific interests concern the molecular basis of cancers, their diagnosis and targeted therapy.
Dr. Veronique T’Joen is Biobank Manager of the Bioresource center Ghent. She obtained her Master degree in Biomedical Sciences in 2006, with a specialization in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. She worked two years as a quality and process engineer for the Red Cross tissue banks.
Liam Burke Masterson is a Programme Manager at Genomics Medicine Ireland, GMI is an Irish life sciences company leading large-scale, population-based medical studies, analysing the relationship between genomics, health and disease. GMI hope to glean new insights that researchers may use to help develop new treatments and diagnostics for a spectrum of incurable conditions in Ireland and beyond.
David van Enckevort is a Project Manager at the Department of Genetics at the UMCG. He is an expert in software development, data harmonization, catalogues, and FAIR, with a strong systems engineering background. From 2010 to 2013 he worked for NBIC as a senior scientific programmer with a project leading role as Technical Project Manager coordinating the NBIC ‘biobanking task force’ and since 2013 co-lead the BBMRI-NL Catalogue. In recent years he has extended this expertise by leading the BBMRI-ERIC Directory, RD-Connect sample catalogue, TraIT studies catalogue, and LifeCycle data item catalogue development. He is involved in the EJP-RD since its inception and is WP lead in the EUCAN-Connect project. David is a member of the IRDiRC Scientific Advisory board and co-chair of the ISBER Repository Locator Working Group.
Dr. Gulcin Gumus is the Research and Policy Project Manager at EURORDIS. Her responsibilities include supporting EURORDIS involvement in EU research projects (e.g. C4C and Solve-RD) as well as contributing to discussions and advocacy topics relevant to rare disease research and policy. She also supports the coordination of the transversal working group of European Patient Advocacy Group (ePAG) on Research and Registries which comprises patient representatives involved in the different European Reference Networks for Rare and Complex Diseases.
Professor Jens K. Habermann, M.D., PH.D., is Director of the Interdisciplinary Center for Biobanking-Lübeck (ICB-L) at the University of Lübeck and University Clinic Schleswig-Holstein. He obtained his Ph.D. at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and postdoc training at the NIH, Bethesda, USA. As specialist in human genetics, he combines clinical routine, biobanking, and cancer research to optimize precision medicine through liquid biopsies. Prof. Habermann is Scientific Director of the University Cancer Center Lübeck and President of the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking (ESBB).
Over the last 18 years Remi van Liempt became an expert in the sample storage and preservation market. After his study Industrial Automation with a specialization in International Business Remi joined Micronic as Product Specialist.
Gabriele Anton is head of the biobank group at the Research Unit Molecular Epidemiology, Institute of Epidemiology and of the Core Facility Biobank at Helmholtz Center Munich. The biobank has more than 30 years of experience in the biobanking field and is today a major resource for researchers working in the fields of prevention, diagnosis and therapy of complex diseases.
Alison Parry-Jones (BSc, MA, PhD, MRSC) is the Manager of the Wales Cancer Bank (WCB) based in Cardiff. Her PhD is in analytical chemistry, she has an MA in Medical Ethics and Law and she is a PRINCE2 registered practitioner. She is the Designated Individual on the WCB licence issued by the Human Tissue Authority and is therefore responsible for governance and compliance across all WCB sites in Wales.
Pieter Moons obtained a PhD in Bioscience engineering from the University of Leuven in 2009. He remained in KULeuven as a post-doc with research lines combining genetics and microbiology. Pieter then joined Sanico NV, a pharmaceutical company in 2010 where he worked as a Scientist in the QC department. In 2011, he joined the internationally renowned lab of Medical Microbiology at the University of Antwerp where he managed and was scientifically involved in several academia-industry consortia focused on the development of rapid diagnostics for infectious diseases and participated in a clinical trial network aimed at combatting antimicrobial resistance. Although still part-time affiliated to the UA lab with research lines focusing on infectious disease diagnostics, in 2018, Pieter was appointed the manager of Biobank Antwerpen which was established at that time in response to the new Belgian biobank legislation as a collaboration between the University of Antwerp and the University Hospital Antwerpen. There he and the team currently face the challenge of integrating the existing collections from both institutions, aiming to create a high-quality biobank that serves the needs of both academia and industry.
Jon Worth is a political blogger, journalist, editor and a relatively early expert on EU affairs in the Internet who regularly writes about EU policy, Brexit and Germany policy. Since 2015 he is a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe and conduces social media trainings to a wide range of European organisations.
Since 2015, Dr. Philip Lawrence is an Associate Professor of Virology at the Catholic University of Lyon (UCLy), France, and research scientist at the University of Lyon, UMRS 449, UCLy – EPHE/PSL. He received his Ph.D. in molecular and cellular biology and virology from the University of Lyon in 2009. He is currently course coordinator for the Master’s program in “Biobank Management” at UCLy. Between 2009 and 2018 he also carried out research at the International Centre for Research in Infectiology (CIRI), INSERM U1111 – CNRS UMR5308 Université Lyon 1, ENS de Lyon, France, notably working on understanding the molecular basis of pathogenicity for several emerging, highly pathogenic viruses. He has 15 years of experience in working with viruses including HIV, Measles and HBV as well as Nipah and Ebola viruses and in particular in using techniques in molecular virology to investigate the virus replication cycle and interactions between viral and host cell proteins at the molecular level. He is currently working on HBV and the links between viral infection and liver cancer in West African patients.
Hélène Blanché is the CEPH biobank manager (since 2007). The CEPH Biobank is compliant, since March 2017 (Certificate # 170375/1366F), with the international quality standard ISO9001:2015, and the French Biological Resource Center quality standard NF S96-900 for the following biobanking services: reception, processing, storage shipment of human biological samples.
Dr. Daniel P. Brucker graduated in biology and holds a PhD in biochemistry from the University of Tübingen where he worked in the field of neurooncology at the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and the Senckenberg Institute for Neurooncology in Frankfurt am Main (Germany) studying metabolism and regulation of transcription factors in brain tumors. 
Tobias Sjöblom is Professor in Tumor Genetics at Uppsala University, Sweden. His current research interests include the somatic genetic basis of colorectal cancer, phenotypes of cancer mutations, and diagnostic and therapeutic development based on somatic mutations. He is Director of the national research infrastructure for sample based research of Biobank Sweden, Node Director for BBMRI.se, and Program Director for U-CAN, a longitudinal cancer research initiative encompassing >17.000 patients to support academic and corporate cancer biomarker research.
Georg Goebel has been working as a Biostatistician at the Department of Medical Statistics, Informatics and Health Economics of the Medical University of Innsbruck in Austria since 1998. He graduated in Mathematics at the Innsbruck University (M.Sc-1998, PhD-2002) and is working as Deputy-Node-Director in the BBMRI.at project since 2018. Currently he holds an Associate Professorship and is also responsible for the coordination of all biobank activities at the Medical University of Innsbruck.
Mary Wang is a Scientific Partnership Manager at Fondazione Telethon, Italy. At Telethon, she is also the Biobank Program Manager, advocating for rare disease (RD) biobanking awareness, and manages grants to the “Telethon Network of Genetic Biobanks”. Currently, Mary is involved in the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases as leader for biobank training and surveying RD community on research needs. Between 2004-2018 she worked on RD-Connect, and contributed to the development of flagship biobank tools as a part of global RD research infrastructure. During the same period, she acted as the EuroBioBank network Secretariat. Since 2019, Mary is actively contributing to operations of IRDiRC and planning of global RD roadmap and recommendations. In addition, she represents Telethon in the ICPerMed Executive Committee. Prior to joining Telethon, Mary worked as a postdoctoral researcher in fields of genetics and immunoloy; she received her PhD in Cell Biology from University College London.
Dr. Dominik Lermen currently works at the Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT. He is head of the working group Biomonitoring & Biobanks and Site Manager of the Fraunhofer IBMT Site in Münster (North Rhine-Westphalia). Dominik does research in Human and Environmental Biomonitoring, Toxicology, Cell Biology, Cryo-Biology, Biobanking, Sample Preparation and Standardization of Pre-analytical Processes. On behalf of the German Environment Agency UBA his working groups operates the Federal Biobank for Human Biomonitoring, an integral part of Germany’s tool for monitoring the exposure to chemicals, the German Environmental Specimen Bank (ESB). Processes of this biobank are certified according DIN EN ISO 9001 and accredited according to DIN EN ISO/IEC 17025.