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History of ESBB |
ESBB is a society for people involved in the collection and storage of biological materials from all species. The society is focussed on Europe, the Middle East and Africa. It was founded in August 2010 and so far has held two annual conferences, one in Marseille (Nov 2011) and the other in Granada (Nov 2012). The conference in Granada attracted over 500 attendees, which is an indication of the level of interest in this society. ESBB has its origins in another society, the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) which is global rather than regional in focus. ISBER was formed 11 years ago by members of the US National Institutes of Heath and Centers for Disease Control and it is based in Bethesda, Maryland. It is a very active society with many committees and working groups. Each year ISBER holds an annual general meeting which includes a variety of carefully planned activities to encourage communication and networking: there are lectures, workshops, exhibitor booths, posters, roundtable lunches, social events, committee meetings and a business meeting. In many ways, these provide an excellent model to follow. One challenge that has inevitably been faced by ISBER, as a US-based international society, has been to provide meetings on other continents that are sufficiently frequent to meet regional needs. To address this need, a European Chapter interest group was formed at ISBER's 2010 annual meeting in Rotterdam (May 2010) and subsequently a discussion group was established on LinkedIn (June 2010), which rapidly grew to over 600 members. In view of the high level of interest, a meeting of 35 members was held in Milan at the end of August 2010, in order to make definitive plans. At this meeting it was decided to establish ESBB as a society serving not only Europe, but also the Middle East and Africa for a variety of reasons including collaborative potential. The initial leadership of the society was decided and officers and committee members were appointed. Based on discussions at the Milan meeting it was decided that ESBB should aim to become a chapter of ISBER, in order to encourage trans-atlantic collaboration and build on the obvious strengths of this sucessful organisation. ESBB became a regional chapter of ISBER in mid 2011. What this means is that the activities of ESBB and ISBER are closely coordinated which leads to mutual benefit. The coordination is achieved by having cross-representation on corresponding committees. So for example, the President of ISBER is an ex-officio member of the ESBB Executive Committee. Similarly, the President of ESBB is an ex-officio member of the ISBER Council. In addition, there are a number of joint activities and so for example members of ESBB are able to join ISBER working groups. ESBB has a regional focus and all of its annual conferences are in the region of Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In contrast, ISBER has global representation and interests, and its annual conferences are held in the USA, Europe, Asia and Australasia. It should be noted that ESBB and ISBER are financially independent. Membership of one organisation does not provide membership of the other. However, starting the 1st January 2013, ISBER and ESBB hope to be able to offer reciprocal discounts to members. To facilitate this, ESBB is currently synchronising its financial year with ISBER. |
| ESBB Mission & Goals |
The mission of ESBB is to advance the field of biobanking in support of research relating to healthcare, education and the environment. |
ESBB Operating Procedures |
Operating procedures for ESBB have been drafted along similar lines to those of ISBER. Their primary function is to define the rights of members, the responsibilities of officers and committees and the procedures to be followed to ensure democratic society elections. Draft operating procedures have been sent to ESBB members for review on the 29th April, 2013. Members will vote to approve possible amendments in August/September 2013. |
| Election Results - 10 Nov. 2012 |
The ESBB election results are as follows: Dr_Manuel_Morente is the new ESBB President-Elect, and he will take on the role of ESBB President in November 2013. Dr_Christina_Schroeder & Dr_Roger_Bjugn are the two new Councilors and they will both serve on the Executive Committee for a period of 3 years. |
Executive Committee - 2013 |
Voting Members Non-Voting Members |
| Programme Committee - 2013 |
The 2013 Programme Committee is being chaired by Pasquale De Blasio |
| Nominating Committee - 2013 |
The 2012 Nominating Committee is being chaired by Peter Riegman |
Professor Christian Chabannon Christian Chabannon is a Professor of Medicine at the Université d’Aix-Marseille, and a full member at the Institut Paoli-Calmettes, the Comprehensive Cancer Center in Marseille. Since 2000, he is the head of the Cell Therapy Facility as well as the tumor bank / Biological Resource Center for Oncology at IPC. Previously, Pr. Chabannon trained at the Lyon and Grenoble University Hospitals in France, and at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, WA, USA. He is a board-certified specialist in Hematology and Medical Oncology. His medical and scientific interests lie in hematopoietic stem cell biology and transplantation, the development of cell therapies, and more generally clinical and translational research in hematology and medical oncology. Pr. Chabannon is a member of several scientific societies. He currently serves as President for JACIE, the Joint Accreditation Committee for ISCT Europe and EBMT, which delivers accreditation to European hematopoietic stem cell programs complying with FACT-JACIE standards. He is also the scientific coordinator for Cancéropôle PACA, the regional cancer research network that promotes networking and communication in all aspects of oncology research in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur area; one of the prominent successes of Cancéropôle PACA has been the establishment of a common and shared web-based catalogue for its three tumor banks. Contact details: chabannonc(at)marseille.fnclcc.fr. Websites: |
Dr. Ann Cooreman - Councilor Ann Cooreman is the co-founder (with Dr. Morag McFarlane) of Tissue Solutions Ltd (www.tissue-solutions.com) based in Glasgow, Scotland. The company helps researchers find human biomaterials for pre-clinical research: fresh, frozen and FFPE tissues, blood products and cell lines, normal and diseased material, all ethically obtained. She is also the company COO. Ann Cooreman started her career as an academic in a very different field but fate led her to become the tissue acquistionist for Scottish Biomedical where she fine-tuned her knowledge of ethics in the UK and Europe with regards to the use of human samples for research. Her experience as Project Manager at Scottish Biomedical and previously at IBM has helped her in growing Tissue Solutions into a niche company, which is establishing a global name for itself after 3 and a half years in the business. Ann Cooreman received a Master’s Degree from the University of Antwerp in Germanic Philology in 1980, Summa Cum Laude, and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Oregon in 1985. She has authored several peer reviewed articles in journals and books as a linguist but is happier as a business woman than she was as an academic. Contact details: ann(at)tissue-solutions.com Web page: www.tissue-solutions.com |
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Pasquale De Blasio - Founding President, ESBB Contact details: p.deblasio(at)isenet.it; pasquale.deblasio(at)isenet.it |
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Rita Lawlor - President, ESBB Rita Lawlor is a founder and project manager for the ARC-NET (www.arc-net.it) cancer research centre in Verona, Italy. She is head of its Research Biobank involved in European Community funded researches for novel molecular diagnostic markers (http://www.moldiagpaca.eu/), therapeutic targets (http://epcnet.eu), and epidemiological studies in cancer (pangen-eu). She project manages the Italian effort within the International Cancer Genome Consortium (www.icgc.org) and the Italian collaboration with Australia and Canada for pancreas cancer. Member of the working group to define the standards for Research Biobanks of the Veneto Regional Government of Italy. She has more than 20 years international experience. In Japan for 6 years, she developed the first trading systems for top trading Japanese companies. She matured skills in risk analysis, over 10 years developing disaster recovery solutions for financial institutions in Japan and Europe. She acquired experience in on-line education while project managing creation of: a data mining knowledge management platform; and a helicopter technical on-line training course for the Italian police. Her experience took her from financial banking to biological sample banking. She has worked for seven years in cancer research and bio-banking and in dataset definition for Italian National pancreas group and the International Cancer Genome Consortium. Degree in Computer Science (1986) and Master Degree (1992), Trinity College Dublin, Ireland. Diploma and Certified in Project Management with Project Management Institute (PMI). Certificate in Principles of biobanking from the University of Luxemburg. Member of PMI, Italian Societies of Pathology (SIAPEC) and Pancreatology (AISP). Committee member of ESBB. |
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Manuel M. Morente MD PhD - President-Elect, ESBB |
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Prof. Marc A. Reymond, MD MBA (AACSB) Marc Reymond is a board-certified gastrointestinal surgeon. He was trained at the University of Geneva, Switzerland and at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA. Since 2005, he is Chairman of the Department of Surgery at the Protestant Hospital Bielefeld (www.evkb.de ), an academic hospital with 1500 beds in Germany. He was group leader at the Foundation for Medical Research at the University of Geneva. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers in the fields of surgical oncology, of sample preparation, of cancer proteomics, of tumor cell dissemination and research bioethics. He is a reviewer for 20+ journals and grant agencies. He is also serving in the board of two non-profit biobanks (www.stiftung-path.de; www.etsi-med.de ). Dr Reymond is Professor of Surgery at the University of Magdeburg, at the Westphalia University Münster and Honorary Professor at the State Medical Academy, Kyrgyzstan. He is the author of several books. He is heading an annual training course for surgeons on behalf of the German College of Surgeons. Dr Reymond completed a MBA (AACSB) in Science & Technology with LaSalle University, PA. He is the founder of a biotechnology company and holder of two innovation prizes. He is inventor of several patents. |
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Robert Hewitt - Executive Officer
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Christian Oste - Chair, Vendor Committee
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