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Pasquale De Blasio, is presently the CEO of BioRep, a global service provider biorepository based in Milan, Italy; President of ESBB and Adjunct Associate Professor at Temple University, Philadelphia-PA (USA) and founder of Integrated
Systems Engineering S.r.l. (www.isenet.it) operating in development of automation instruments for molecular and cellular biology (e.g Tissue Microarrayers, Biorepositories automation, etc.).
He has also experience with ISO 9001 Quality System, EEC Medical Directive and CE certification. He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA (1976), and a Master Degree in Business Administration
from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy (1986). He is co-author of several peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-participants of several industrial patents.
Peter Riegman is at present the head of the Erasmus Medical Center Tissue Bank. The tissue bank offers fresh frozen tissue and pathology archival FFPE materials for medical research. The frozen samples are covered with a QA and QC program
collected under the rules defined by the Dutch code of conduct. From this position he is involved in four European projects, EurocanPlatform, SPIDIA, EuroBoNeT and BBMRI. He has coordinated the TuBaFrost project, which is still active
within the OECI, where he is co-opted board member and chair of the OECI working group biobanking. From 2008 he became ISBER president-elect, 2009-2010 he has been ISBER president, which is followed by the role of past president until
2011. He was elected vice president at the end of 2010 as vice president in ESBB ISBER chapter. In 2011 he became a member of the Editorial board of Biopreservation and Biobanking and of the International Steering Committee of P3G.
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.
Manuel Morente is a specialist in Pathology who has worked for 15 years as both a surgical pathologist at the Hospital General Universitario de Guadalajara (Spain) and Associate Professor at the Universidad de Alcalá de Henares. He was
appointed as the Head of the Spanish National Cancer Centre (CNIO) Tumour Bank Unit (www.cnio.es) in 2001 and since 2009 he has been Coordinator of the Spanish National Biobank Network (www.redbiobancos.es) a nationwide network including
more than 60 biobanks, called to be the Spanish Scientific component of BBMRI-ERIC. He is member of the Spanish National Institute of Health Ethics Committee, Acting President of CNIO’s Committee for Research Integrity & Professional
Conduct, and Director of the 1st University Master on Biobanking in Spain (UCV, Valencia). He is an active participant in a number of biobanking organisations and societies including BBMRI, ISBER, ESBB, Marble Arch Working Group, European
Human Frozen Tumour Tissue Bank (TuBaFrosT), and the Tumour Bank Program of the Spanish Cancer Centres Network, and he actively promotes biobank networks throughout Europe and Latin America.
Hans-Peter Deigner currently is Professor of Pharmacology and Vice Dean of the new faculty of Medical and Life Sciences (Furtwangen University, Germany, http://www.hs-furtwangen.de/ ), also holds an affiliation with Fraunhofer, IZI (Leipzig,
Germany). During the past years he applied metabolomics to identify and develop biomarkers at Fraunhofer Institute IZI / EXIM, Rostock, Germany and Biocrates AG, Innsbruck, Austria.
Hans-Peter has extensive experience in omics and biomarker research including several senior management positions positions in Biotech companies. He authors about 75 peer reviewed articles and 40 patents / patent applications and is a
regular reviewer for numerous scientific journals and funding agencies. While holding senior management positions in biotech industry he has developed novel molecular diagnostics from the idea via the prototype to the final commercial
product. From 2004-2006 he took up a chair in Biomedicinal Chemistry, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. Hans-Peter Deigner graduated in pharmaceutical chemistry, Heidelberg University, Germany and after a position as research
associate at Harvard Medical School returned to Heidelberg to finish his habilitation and to work as group leader and senior lecturer/associate professor. His current research interests comprise the integration of omics data and its
combinatorial use in biospecimen & biomarker research, systems biology, molecular diagnostics and individualized therapy.
Erik Steinfelder earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Analytical Chemistry from the Saxion University of Applied Sciences in Deventer, Netherlands, and subsequently completed a degree in Foundations of Management at Nyenrode Business
University in Breukelen, Netherlands. In 2008, he joined Thermo Fisher Scientific, a multinational biotechnology product development company based in the US. In his position as first Biobank Commercial Leader EMEA, he went on to head
the complete biobank portfolio and range of activities and, most recently, became Corporate Accounts Executive. Additionally, between 2014 and 2017, he was also President-elect, President and past President of ESBB, the European, Middle
Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking. He started his position as Director General of BBMRI-ERIC on the 1st August 2017.
Elke Smits earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from the University of Leuven, a Master of Science in Biotechnology and a PhD in Veterinary Sciences in 1998 from the University of Gent in Belgium.
Elke Smits joined Devgen Inc, a spin-off company in Gent, as manager molecular cell biology for target discovery and drug development projects. In 2004, she became senior scientist at the Flemish Science Policy Council, the advisory body for the Flemish
regional government concerning science and innovation policy. She has published over 20 peer-reviewed articles, holds several patents, wrote many policy advices and recommendations and authored the study serie Technology and Innovation
in Flanders: Priorities.
Prof. dr. Elke Smits currently heads the Science & Innovation department of the Antwerp University Hospital in Belgium and has gained extensive experience in merging translational research and biobanking within a clinical setting. She holds a visiting
professorship position at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Antwerp and is liaison officer for the Clinical Research Center Antwerp.
As ESBB Ambassador, prof. Elke Smits promotes the European, Middle East and Africa Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking. She served for a term as councilor, president-elect, president, and past-president. She also started ESBBTranslate working group
with Christina Schroeder from Fraunhofer Institute in Germany and Eoin Gaffney, Pathologist and founder of the Biobank Ireland trust. The goal is to bring together a forum to enable and enhance public-private biobank related partnerships
within the European framework and foster biobank-based R&D and innovation within the pharmaceutical, biotech and ICT industry.
Tobias Schulte in den Bäumen is an Attorney at Law and Partner at the law firm Wolff/Graeser, based in Bielefeld / Germany. He has been advising researchers, clinicians and biobanks for a number of years in privacy, technology transfer
and regulatory affairs issues. He is a founding member of the ESBB, a former visiting research fellow at the JRC-IPTS for legal aspects of biobanking and the former chair of the legal working group of the Public Health Genomics European
Network (PHGEN). Before joining Wolff/Graeser he has been serving as the Secretary General of the European Law Institute (ELI) in Vienna / Austria and as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Genetics and Cell Biology of the
Faculty of Health, Medicine and Life Sciences at Maastricht University/Netherlands.
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).
Schroeder was trained as a chemist and received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Mainz. After additional seminars in science communication and journalism, she volunteered for PR work with the German Biochemistry and
Molecular Biology Society (GBM2) in the 1990s, and was awarded their Communication Price in 2003. Serving as a managing officer to the former German Industrial Association for the Promotion of Human Genome Research since 2000,
she was appointed coordinator of the Central Research Infrastructure for molecular Pathology (CRIP) in 2005. CRIP was established in a private-public partnership between the said Association, 7 pharmaceutical companies and
the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF), and was transferred to Fraunhofer IBMT in 2007. As a representative of Fraunhofer IBMT, she has been actively involved in BBMRI work packages for Disease-oriented
biobanks (WP-3), ICT (WP-5) and Funding and financing (WP-7). Within ESBB, Christina leads the “ESBBtranslate” Pharma-Academia Working Group, together with Dr Elke Smits.
Jackie Mackenzie-Dodds is Molecular Collections Manager in the Life Sciences Department of the Natural History Museum in London, where she has been working for 22 years, in Research and Curation (Molecular Collections). She has
recently established the new Molecular Collections cryofacility/NHM London Biobank for ~2 million biodiversity and environmental specimens and samples from across the globe spanning the Tree of Life, accessible to researchers
worldwide. She has many contacts with museums and herbaria worldwide, which represent a large diverse population of biological specimens, including many endangered and/or extinct species, environmental time series, and agricultural
and commercial interest collections, all providing invaluable genetic and environmental information for now and the future. Current climate change, global warming and the biodiversity crisis issues make these non-human repositories
particularly valuable to mankind.
Jackie has been an ISBER and ESBB member from 2008 and 2010 respectively, and co-chairs the joint ESBB/ISBER Environmental Biospecimen Working Group (EB WG). She was also a member of the ESBB 2013 Verona Meeting programme committee representing non-human
biobanking members.
Robert Hewitt studied medicine at St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School, London and later obtained a PhD at the Medical Research Council Virology Unit, Univ. of Glasgow. He worked 5 years in pathology as Clinical lecturer in
Pathology at the University of Nottingham, before moving to Bethesda, Maryland, USA, to take up an NIH research fellowship from 1994-98 at the Lab of Pathology of the US National Cancer Institute. Robert has been involved in
biobanking for the past sixteen years, and has been involved in setting up biobanks at Hammersmith Hospital in London, UK; then King Faisal Specailist Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and then National University Hospital
in Singapore (the NUH-NUS Tissue Repository) where he also established a hospital-based cancer registry. He was ISBER president from 2008-2009 and chaired numerous committees from 2006 to 2013. He co-founded ESBB in 2010 and
was Executive Officer from the start until October 2017. He was also European Editor of the journal, Biopreservation and Biobanking from 2009-2016. He was winner of the ISBER Distinguished Leadership & Service Award (2011)
and the ISBER Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking (2012).
Dr. Peter Doran earned his BSc. from Dublin City University in 1998 and his PhD from University College Dublin in 2001. Dr. Doran is a lecturer at the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science, and Scientific Director of the UCD Clinical
Research Centre (CRC). The UCD CRC with facilities at both the Mater Misericordiae and St. Vincent's University Hospitals drives clinical and translational research which is aimed at improving patient care by acting as a catalyst to
bring all members of the biomedical research enterprise together to ensure novel health interventions are developed and diffused into Irish healthcare practice. Dr Doran leads the significant biobanking activity completed at the UCD
CRC and has been the driver for the creation of national biobanking guidelines. The main focus of his research is the complications associated with HIV and its treatment. Since the introduction of Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy
(HAART), morbidity and mortality have been significantly reduced. However, a number of serious side effects have been seen in these patients. HIV patients are at increased risk of decreased bone density, and osteoporosis. His laboratory
is focused on uncovering the effects of both HIV and antiviral treatment on the biology of bone cells. Specifically we are interested in changes in the function of osteoblasts and Mesesnchymal stem cells. Through these investigations
we are gaining further insight into the interaction of HIV with the body.
Roger Bjugn is a board certified pathologist with a PhD in neuroscience. In addition, he has a master’s degree in management. He has previously held a number of elected positions in the Norwegian Medical Associatian, inluding Chairman
of the Norwegian Society of Pathology. His knowledge of biobanking is based on hands-on experience with both ethical, organizational and technical biobank issues. Since 2004, he has been working particularly with administrative systems
and technical infrastructure related to diagnostic biobanks, treatment biobanks and research biobanks at Oslo University Hospital in Olso, Norway. He has also been involved in several regional, national and international biobank projects.
Roger has been an ISBER-member since 2004 and is currently a member of the working group on hospital integrated biorepositories. He has also been a member of the Marble Arch Working Group since its initiation in 2005.
Philippe Van der Hofstadt is CEO of B & C Group, a European niche packaging & logistics company dedicated to clinical research and active on a global scale (www.bnc-group.com). After the degree of Pharmacist at Université Catholique
de Louvain (UCL), Philippe worked at SGS Laboratoires Simon and Biopharma to become Industrial Pharmacist and did a third cycle in Pharmaceutical Engineering. He has worked as Junior Consultant in Regulatory Affairs and Clinical Research
with Cogepharm & Pharmarisk in France and Belgium, Sales Manager with SmithKline Beecham Clinical Laboratories' Central Laboratory (now QUEST) in Europe, and was General Manager of CRL-Medinet (Central Laboratory) in the Netherlands.
In 1999, he started the expansion of B & C Group as a niche service provider in clinical research offering innovative & flexible Drug & kit packaging & warehousing, transport, biobanking and drug archiving solutions
to Pharma & Biotech companies, CROs, Central Labs and Academic or Research Institutions. Philippe is active in several Professional Associations and is currently: President of BeCRO, the Belgian Association of CROs (www.becro.be)
, member of EUCROF, the European CRO Federation (www.eucrof.eu), President of the VAPI-UPIP (Belgian Association of Industrial Pharmacists), Member of the BioWin Biobanking Working Group composed of representatives from commercial
Biorepositories, the Belgian Cancer Registry, Universities, Research Laboratories, (Bio)Pharmaceutical and Diagnostic companies.
Prof Emmanuel Akin Abayomi Position: Head of Department of Haematopathology Tygerberg Academic Hospital and Associate Professor of Haematology University of Stellenbosch, Cape Town. Qualifications: MBBS (London), MRCP (UK), FCPath
Haem (SA), MPhil (UP), FRCP(Edin) PhD Project: Stem cells in HIV disease. My current position is as Chief Pathologist and Head of the Division of Haematology and Associate Professor Faculty of Health Sciences, University of
Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa (www.sun.ac.za/haema). I am a specialist in internal Medicine and Haematology, I studied at the Royal Medical College of St Bartholomew’s Hospital in the University of London
where I attained my first graduate degree in Medicine. Specialized in Internal Medicine and Haematology, obtaining fellowships from both Royal College of Medicine in the United Kingdom and the College of Medicine of South Africa.
I have worked in several countries around the world in both Internal Medicine and Haematology and have been exposed to a variety of geographical variations and disease patterns within the discipline of Internal Medicine and
Haematology. My focus has mainly been on the complications of HIV and the development of laboratory and clinical capacity to rise to the challenge of the HIV epidemic in the Developing world and Africa.. .
He has also experience with ISO 9001 Quality System, EEC Medical Directive and CE certification. He has a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University, Villanova, Pennsylvania, USA (1976), and a Master Degree in Business Administration
from Bocconi University, Milan, Italy (1986). He is co-author of several peer-reviewed scientific papers and co-participants of several industrial patents.
Professor 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.
Dr. Maimuna Mendy is a molecular virologist by training over 25 years’ experience in research on hepatitis infection and liver disease in SS Africa. She has a background in capacity building and infrastructure in Low and Middle
Income Countries (LMIC) in the area of biobanking and laboratory with expertise in coordinating studies that involve multiple international partners. She retires as Head of the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC)
LSB Group in Sep 2017. The IARC Biobank is one of the largest international biobanks. Dr Mendy organized its centralization which brought together diverse collections from multiple collaborative studies onto a single platform
and ensuring that best practice principles and international ethical guidelines are followed for the management and re-distribution of the resources. She founded the Biobank and Cohort Building Network for LMIC (BCNet) in 2013
to provide technical and scientific support to LMIC biobanks on issues related to quality, infrastructure, transnational access to biological resources and ethical implications. Dr Mendy Joined ESBB from its inception, a member
of the Africa and the Education and Training Working Groups. She has published widely and co-author to over 70 publications in peer review journals. She is a member of several international organisations and member of a number
of Advisory Boards
Dr. Ann Cooreman is the co-founder 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.
Dr. Maimuna Mendy is a molecular virologist by training over 25 years’ experience in research on hepatitis infection and liver disease in SS Africa. She has a background in capacity building and infrastructure in Low and
Middle Income Countries (LMIC) in the area of biobanking and laboratory with expertise in coordinating studies that involve multiple international partners. She retires as Head of the International Agency for Research
on Cancer (IARC) LSB Group in Sep 2017. The IARC Biobank is one of the largest international biobanks. Dr Mendy organized its centralization which brought together diverse collections from multiple collaborative studies
onto a single platform and ensuring that best practice principles and international ethical guidelines are followed for the management and re-distribution of the resources. She founded the Biobank and Cohort Building
Network for LMIC (BCNet) in 2013 to provide technical and scientific support to LMIC biobanks on issues related to quality, infrastructure, transnational access to biological resources and ethical implications. Dr Mendy
Joined ESBB from its inception, a member of the Africa and the Education and Training Working Groups. She has published widely and co-author to over 70 publications in peer review journals. She is a member of several
international organisations and member of a number of Advisory Boards
