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2022-09-08

Download the conference program book here >> (pdf)

8.15–8.25 – Room: F4+F5

Welcome

Linda Paulson, Chair of Steering Committe, Head of Biobank West, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden.

Lasse Boding, Member of Steering Committe, Head of Coordinating Centre, Danish National Biobank. Statens Serum Institut, Denmark.

8.25–8.50 – Room: F4+F5

Advancing biobanking in Europe – from community engagement to cross-country collaborations with Nordic biobanks

BBMRI-ERIC is the European research infrastructure for biobanking and biomolecular resources, established in 2013. Through our directory we enable access to 700 biobanks with 1800 collections, including cohorts in the areas of e.g. cancer, rare diseases, paediatrics, COVID-19 and infectious diseases across Europe. We are also bringing together researchers, biobankers, industry, and patients with the goal of boosting life science research.

Read more about BBMRI-ERIC

To that end, we offer quality management services, support with ethical, legal, and societal issues, biobanking development and an online platform with tools for access, exchange, and analyses. BBMRI-ERIC is currently funded by 23 European countries and IARC/WHO.

With its vision for the 2022-2024 Work Programme, BBMRI-ERIC plans to intensify its engagement with the biobanking communities, as well as researchers, clinicians and other important actors, such as industry. While Finland, Sweden, and Norway are already on board of the BBMRI-ERIC community, the presentation will discuss the importance of reaching even deeper into the Nordic communities, and looking into possible ways of further strengthening the collaboration with the BBMRI National Nodes, its biobanks and their stakeholders both, within BBMRI network specific activities and within common EU project activities. The presentation will address also the benefits for Denmark and Iceland potentially joining the BBMRI-ERIC community.

Invited speaker

Jens K. Habermann, MD, PhD, Director General BBMRI-ERIC, Austria 

9.00–10.30 – Room: F4+F5

Symposium 4a

The role of Nordic biobanks in pandemics

In this session different ways to utilize biobanks in Covid-19 research will be described, such as the collection of new samples to study long covid, linking genomic biobank data with hospital and register data to provide insight into disease development, and how the biobank infrastructure was harnessed to develop mass testing of Covid-19 in the population. These provide good examples for how biobank infrastructures can support the study of emerging pandemics.

Chair: Satu Koskela, PhD, Assoc. Professor, Finnish Red Cross Blood Service Biobank, Finland

Invited speakers

9.00-9.30

Markus Perola, Research Professor, THL Biobank, Finland

Utilizing Finnish biobanks in Covid-19 research. 


9.30-10.00

Karina Meden Sørensen, Section Leader, Laboratory Manager, Statens Serum Institut, Denmark

Using the Danish National Biobank infrastructure as a platform to develop mass testing of COVID-19 in the population.

Oral abstract presenters

10.00-10.15

Trine Altø, HUNT Research Center and Biobank, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway

HUNT COVID – a prospective population study for pandemic surveillance. 


10.15-10.30

Elisabeth Norén, Biobank Sweden, Sweden

National coordination of biobanking related to Covid-19.

9.00–10.30 – Room: F3

Symposium 4b

Good examples of biobank research

As biobanks can give researchers access to samples from a large number of people they have become a very efficient and important resource in medical research. Thus, they are supporting cutting edge research in e.g. genomics and personalized medicine. The session will provide a broad perspective as well as specific examples on excellent research based on biobanks.

Chair: Erik Sørensen, PhD, Operational Director Copenhagen Hospital Biobank Unit, Denmark

Invited speakers

9.00-9.30

Mark Divers, PhD, Director, Karolinska Institutet Biobank, Sweden

Biobanks make a difference: why Time magazine and Forbes got it right


9.30-10.00

Jonas Ghouse, MD, PhD, Laboratory of Molecular Cardiology, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark

Use of genetic profiling of a large biobank combined with prescription patterns to discover genetic loci associated with adverse drug reactions

Oral abstract presenters

10.00-10.15

Jonna Clancy, FRC Blood Service Biobank, Finland

Improving biobank collection usability by computational HLA and KIR typing methods.


10.15-10.30

Margit Larsen, PhD, Copenhagen University Hospital, Denmark

Large Scale Investigation of Biomarkers using MesoScale Discovery Platform.

10.30–11.00 – Room: Exhibition Hall F

Coffee break – Exhibition and Posters

11.00–12.30 – Room: F4+F5

Symposium 5a

Infrastructure

The infrastructure of Biobank Sweden aims to give Sweden the best prerequisites for healthcare and research within the biobank area, both national and international. 

AstraZeneca’s vision is a global biobank infrastructure with visibility, in full compliance with ethical and legal standards and rapid access to samples.

In this session we will also address the EU clinical trial regulation, which came into force in January 2022, and discuss some of the obvious possibilities and hidden obstacles in getting the much-needed infrastructure in place.

Chair: Camilla Hildesjö, Med Lic, Custodian Biobank Östergötland, Regionalt biobankscentrum Linköping, Sweden

Invited speakers

11.00-11.30

Sonja Eaker Fält, PhD, Head of Biobank Sweden, Sweden

Biobank Sweden, a national infrastructure with regional availability


11.30-12.00

Karin Gedda, PhD, Associate Director, AstraZeneca, Sweden

Biobanking from a global perspective

Oral abstract presenters

12.00-12.15

Jock Nielsen, PhD, Copenhagen Hospital, Denmark

Data management and design in Biobank-merging.


12.15-12.30

Johanna Sandgren, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

The Swedish Childhood Tumor Biobank -A national sample-collection and genomic characterization initiative of pediatric solid tumors for research purpose.

11.00–12.30 – Room: F3

Symposium 5b

Patient engagement and return of genomic data

Health care is moving towards patient-centered and precision medicine where biobanking-based research will play an important role. In this symposium we will discuss biobanking from the patients perspective as perceived by a patient advocate and a genetic counsellor. Both have extensive experience in representing patient interest in an area of different stakeholders. We will address weaknesses in the legal framework and ethical dilemmas hindering optimal biobanking.

Traditionally, the role of patients has been as research study participants. But with the patient-centred healthcare, its more accepted to have them as collaborators in the study design, development, and governance of biobanks as well as for future strategies. Dynamic consent for empowerment of patients/participants will also be addressed.

Chair: Jón Jónsson, Professor, Landspitali – University of Iceland, Iceland

Invited speakers

11.00-11.30

Vigdis Stefansdottir, PhD, University of Iceland, Iceland

Recontacting, cascade and opportunistic testing. Sharing data and information with patients.


11.30-12.00

Margareta Haag, Chair of the network against cancer, Sweden

Patient partnership, a key to precision health

Oral abstract presenters

12.00-12.15

Anna Clareborn, Biobank Sweden, Sweden

Margareta Haag, Chair of the network against cancer, Sweden

Eskil Degsell, Vice president, Swedish Brain Tumour Association, Sweden

Collaborating with Patients and Next of Kin: Towards a Culture of Equal Partnership.


12.15-12.30

Shona Kerr, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Viking Genes: Return of actionable genetic research results to Scottish cohort participants.

12.30–13.30 – Room: Exhibition Hall F

Lunch – Exhibition and Posters

13.30–15.00 – Room: F4+F5

Symposium 6a

Digitalization

What can digitalization offer biobanks and biobank research? New ways to visualize vast amounts of data, explore different scenarios and obtain novel research ideas will be shown, including health register data and genomic data. In addition, developing digital services for biobank sample donors, built inside the hospital settings will be described. These include consent management and recontact of donors.

Chair: Kimmo Savinainen, Deputy Head of Finnish Clinical Biobank Tampere, Tampere University Hospital, Finland

Invited speakers

13.30-14.00

Aki Lehto, ICT-Architect, Tampere University Hospital, Finland

OmaTays – enabling digital consent interaction for Tampere Biobank


14.00-14.30

Toni Mikkola, Data Scientist, Tampere University Hospital, Finland

Short introduction to unstructured patient records, – From regular expressions to text classification

Oral abstract presenters

14.30-14.45

Hanna Fransson, Biobank Sweden, Sweden

National Biobank Register (NBR) – the regions’ common IT system with data about samples kept in biobanks.


14.45-15.00

Nina Krüger, Oslo University Hospital, Norway

Development and implementation of electronic informed consent for cancer research. 

13.30–15.00 – Room: F3

Symposium 6b

Innovative technologies

New developments from all directions are transforming biobanking and making it possible to do so much more with samples and data that represent complex biology. This symposium will look at some examples of technology leaps that either build on biobanks or transform what they can do.

Chair: Mark Divers, PhD, Director, Karolinska Institutet Biobank, Sweden

Invited speakers

13.30-14.00

Mattias Rantalainen, Lecturer Senior, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

The CHIME project – leveraging national registries and biobanks to develop AI-based solutions for cancer precision pathology


14.00-14.30

Päivi Östling, Researcher, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

Material flows needed for multi-onic and functional precision medicine.

Oral abstract presenters

14.30-14.45

Jón Jónsson, Professor, Landspitali – University Of Iceland, Iceland

Evaluation of DNA damage in biosamples. 


14.45-15.00

Cindy Lawley, PhD, Olink, USA

Proximity extension assay in combination with Next-Generation Sequencing for high-throughput proteome-wide analysis in large population health and biobank studies.

15.00–15.20 – Room: Exhibition Hall F

Coffee break – Exhibition and Posters

15.20–16.05 – Room F4+F5

Panel discussion – Collaboration between Nordic Biobanks

Moderator:

Frida Lundmark, The Swedish Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, LIF, Sweden

Panel:

Sweden: Sonja Eaker Fält, Biobank Sweden
Norway: Kristian Hveem, NTNU, Biobank Norway
Denmark: Lasse Boding, Danish National Biobank
Finland: Marco Hautalahti, FINBB
Iceland: Jón Jónsson, University of Iceland

16.05–16.15 – Room: F4+F5

Closing remarks and the future of Nordic Biobank Conference

Linda Paulson, Chair of Steering Committe, Head of Biobank West, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Sweden.

Lasse Boding, Member of Steering Committe, Head of Coordinating Centre, Danish National Biobank. Statens Serum Institut, Denmark.