The second ISBER Biospecimen Research Symposium was held in Berlin on 5–6 February in partnership with the German Biobank Node (GBN). This year’s event focused on in vivo and ex vivo pre-analytics, the microbiome and the standardisation of liquid biopsies. A total of 125 people from 25 countries attended. The German Biobank Node (GBN) had a well-visited stand at the event.
Day 1: “Cancer Moonshot” and pre-analytics – in vivo and ex vivo
The symposium opened with a welcome address by GBN coordinator Prof. Dr. Michael Hummel and Dr. Cristina Villena, who coordinates the Spanish Plataforma Red Nacional de Biobancos. Dr. Helen Moore then gave a keynote presentation on “Moonshot”, a longitudinal collection of oncological biomaterial samples with an initial funding period of five years. This was followed by sessions on in vivo and ex vivo pre-analytics. Prof. Dr. Achim Kramer (Head of Chronobiology, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin) introduced a blood test he has developed to identify individual circadian rhythms. It allows him to assign people a specific chronotype (e.g. early riser or night owl). His test is relevant for both clinical and research applications. Mahesh Desai (Research Group Leader, Department of Infection and Immunity, Luxembourg Institute of Health) spoke on the impact of diet on the development of intestinal disorders. He explained, for example, how a low-fibre diet can lead bacteria to become the body’s enemy.
Day 2: microbiome, standards for liquid biopsies, poster awards ceremony
The session on ex vivo pre-analytics continued on the second day. It was followed by a session on the microbiome. Dr. Fay Betsou (Chief Scientific Officer, Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg and Chair of the Scientific and Ethical Advisory Board, German Biobank Node) chaired the debate on the CEN and ISO standards for liquid biopsies being developed within the EU-funded SPIDIA4P project. The debate made clear how important it is to establish standards for pre-analytical processes in personalised medicine. Five speakers then presented their work during oral abstract presentations. Sven Heiling, project manager at the GBA partner biobank in Jena (Integrated Biobank Jena, IBBJ), discussed the project on “quality control and assessment of the pre-analytical workflow in liquid biobanking: metabolite ratios as quality control marker for pre-centrifugation delay”. The symposium concluded with a poster awards ceremony, which was won by Mar Iglesias Coma and her colleagues with their poster on the OPTIMARK project (“Search for quality markers for paraffin-embedded tissue samples”).
The above text contains passages from the event report by Lorie Neuberger-Castillo (Integrated BioBank of Luxembourg) published on the ISBER website. View the original text here.
