Conference Day One: Thursday, August 19, 2010

7:00 Registration For Workshop (Optional)

7:30 Morning Pre-Conference Workshop: BioBanking On An Industrial Scale: Biomarker Factories

(Separate registration is required)

Currently, when it comes to large biorepository initiatives, there are a few biobanks that have hundreds of thousands of participant samples with related health histories and information. In some cases specific clinic goals are set at 100+ donors per day. When sample processing efforts in the tens of thousands are taken into account budgets become a challenge to manage.

What will be covered:

  • Sample variability
  • Decision-making in automation/robotics
  • Setting expectations for the budget
  • Strategic planning for growth

How you will benefit:

  • Discovery of the various problems encountered with a diverse sample portfolio
  • Introduction to cutting-edge robotics
  • Development of management and planning capabilities in biobanking

Mark G. Mense
DVM, PhD, MBA, Diplomate, ACVP, ABT, Head, Global Pathology
Translational Sciences-Research MedImmune, LLC

9:00 Registration & Coffee

9:35 Chairperson’s Welcome & Opening Remarks

9:45 Connecting Biorepositories And Advancing Discovery

Access to high quality samples is considered as the main bottleneck for scientific communities focused on research. Health organizations and biobanks are the most adequate bodies to try to resolve this issue. However, biobanking is not a static activity, and so veterans and newcomers alike must continually engage in communication and networking. To accomplish current requirements of the scientific community biobanks need to face some essential challenges as a collective body, including appropriate design of biorepositories, harmonized and more suitable procedures, and sustainability. All of these goals must be accomplished with keen consideration of ethic, legal and social challenges. Discussion questions for the attending include:

  • The expanding role of patient populations in biobanking
  • Ethical challenges with international exchanges
  • Standards in sample storage, data collection, and sharing practices

Liz Horn
Director
Genetic Alliance

10:30 Morning Networking And Refreshment Break

11:00 The Promise Of Pharmacogenomics: Money In The “Bank”

Progress in the field of pharmacogenomics is expected to impact the future of biobanks significantly. Pharmacogenetic research is seeking to identify genetic markers that account for the diversity in efficacy and adverse effects of particular drugs in different patient groups. The concept of better aiding physicians in matching drugs and dosages to individual patients is hard to turn one’s back on. Topics to be discussed include:

  • Current state of development of key markers associated with drug targets and drug metabolizing enzymes
  • Use of genetic testing in the clinical context
  • The importance of quality in the lab
  • Predictions for the future

Sandra Close Kirkwood
Research Technologies and Experimental Medicine
Eli Lilly

11:45 From Concept Genesis To Grand Opening: Roswell Park Data Bank And Biorepository (A Case Study)

The Roswell Park Cancer Institute (RPCI) is America's first cancer center, founded in 1898 by Dr. Roswell Park. It is the only upstate New York facility to hold the National Cancer Center designation of "comprehensive cancer center" and to serve as a member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network. Within the center, the Roswell Park Data Bank and BioRepository (DBBR) conducts translational and medical research by using biospecimens from patients and healthy controls. Topics to be discussed include:

  • Where to start and why (building from the ground up)
  • Staging of funding, including support from the government agencies
  • Making a privately collected resource available to many smaller research teams
  • Standard Operating Procedures to live by

Mary Nesline
Co-Director
Roswell Park Data Bank and Biorepository

12:30 Networking Luncheon

1:30 The Benefits Of Supporting Highly Specialized Collections

Private self funded Biobanks occupy an important niche in a space dominated by large players who often have access to public financing and links to academics and other respected experts. In order to be successful, smaller private biobanks have to be innovative, nimble and flexible. With the relatively small number of available patients and samples, as well as limited access to funding, sub-standard collection management is not an option. It is counter productive for scientists to perform expensive analyses on poor-quality samples. Thus appropriate clinical protocol and database design as well as pre-analytics are essential components in all collections. The opportunity to pre-determine these essential components in prospective studies is extremely useful. Join this interactive session and learn about the following:

  • Business model, services offered as well as specialized and custom collections
  • CSF: A niche approach
  • Continuously evolving biorepository operating standards.

John Flax
President
PrecisionMed

Karine Sargsyan
Director
Secretariat Biobank Medical University of Graz

2:15 Informed Consent In Practice At A Multinational Pharmaceutical Company

During the past 10 years, human biological material—body fluids, cells, tissues, intracellular substances or DNA—and the related data have become an important resource for academic medical research, and for the industrial development of diagnostics and therapeutics. The increasing creation and use of biobanks that store both the material and the related data bears witness to their scientific value, but there is still no consensus— either internationally, or at the European or national levels— about the regulations that should govern biobanks in ethical or legal terms. In particular, consent models designed to appropriately regulate biobank-based research are characterized by a maze of laws, policies and ethical recommendations that range from strict (specific informed consent) to basically unrestricted use. Topics to be discussed include:

  • Initial models and procedures used for drafting, unified consent forms for the storage and use of human biological material and related data for the purpose of research
  • Current issues we are facing
  • Proposed solutions for moving forward

Anne Bahr
Deputy R&D Data Privacy Officer
Sanofi-Aventis

2:45 Afternoon Networking And Refreshment Break

3:30 The Innovation Chain Of BioBanking

Leading technology experts will bring us through current advances in preparation, application, and leveraging of biospecimens for patient populations. Beginning first with a summary of innovation trends, the discussion continues from view of advances in population-based health studies to reaching the patient’s bedside through translational medicine. Topics to be discussed include:

  • Unique population-based studies creating hope
  • Sample preparation and storage techniques that enhance the value of Biorepositories
  • Retrieving and using biospecimens in new and impactful ways
  • Helping patients through innovative approaches to medicine

Session Chairperson:

Rhett Affleck
Vice President of Technology
Nexus Biosystems

Panelists:

Edward P. Frantz Jr.
National Sales Director
Environmental Specialties

Ellis Gitlin
Director of Sales
Hamilton Storage Technologies

4:45 Local Biobank Site Tour

(Separate registration is required)

“Bio”-transportation Takes on a New Meaning as the BioBanking Event’s Audience Heads to the Shore PrecisionMed Inc., founded in 1994, is a privately held human biobank in Solana Beach. The executive management team is clearing room in the corporate calendar to host a guided tour of their facility. Introductions to the specialized neurobiology repository will be made and participants are encouraged to open up discussions specific to equipment and the biobanking business model supported by PrecisionMed.

First come first served seating offered to all individuals registering for the pre-conference Workshop!

6:45 End Of Conference Day 1