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€ | 115€ | 140€ |
| 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€ |
| 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
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).
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.
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. 
Sophia 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.