Europe Biobank Week 2020 (EBW2020) will take place between 17th and 20th November. This is the largest biobanking conference in Europe and is a joint effort of ESBB and BBMRI-ERIC. This will be the first time the conference will be completely run digitally. The programme includes a mix of live sessions, e-Poster sessions, industry workshops and on-demand sessions. There will be plenty opportunities to engage, discuss, network, and promote knowledge around biobanking with other professionals in the field.
The ‘Animal Cells and Gametes: Next Generation Biodiversity Resources for Research and Conservation’ on-demand session will be chaired by Jonas Astrin (Biobank Curator, Zoological Research Museum Koenig, ZFMK, Germany) and Jacqueline Mackenzie-Dodds (Molecular Collections facility Manager, Natural History Museum, UK).
Away from the clinical, medical and human arena, but incredibly important to healthy ecosystems on planet Earth and hence, human welfare, this fascinating session focuses on ‘next generation’ resources for biodiversity research and applied conservation. Selected viable collections from the US and EU are highlighted including invaluable resources from established gold standard to inspirational new collections of cell lines and gametes from animal species across the world (many critically endangered). Session highlights include research and development covering new animal cloning technologies, genetic rescue, population enhancement and species resurrection, with some inspirational recent success stories, both engaging and emotional. The session presents novel and challenging cell cryobiology for non-human species, complementing, learning from and informing equivalent areas in the clinical sectors, and will be of great interest to EBW2020 conference delegates from all areas and biobanking disciplines.
Invited speakers include Marlys L. Houck (Curator of the Frozen Zoo® at San Diego Zoo Global’s Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego, California, USA), Tullis Matson (Founder and Managing Director of Stallion AI Services, UK), Julie Strand (Manager of the Conservation Biobank in Randers, Denmark) and Jorge Pereira (Postdoc at the Animal and Veterinary Research Centre at the University of Vila Real, Portugal).
More information on speakers can be found here.
