Organisation Etienne Jarry, ejarry@comnco.comBenjamin Richier, brichier@comnco.com 12, boulevard Fellen, 13016 Marseille, FranceTel.: (+33) 4 91 09 70 53 - Fax: (+33) 4 96 15 33 08www.comnco.com

Palazzo della Gran Guardia37121 Piazza Bra, Verona, ItalyTel.: (+34) 958 248 934www.pcgr.org

ESBB Executive OfficerRobert Hewitt

ESBB PresidentRita Lawlor

Local organisersRita Lawlor & Aldo Scarpa

ESBB Programme CommitteePasquale De Blasio (Chair)Hans-Peter DeignerRita LawlorDominik LermenDaniel Simeon-DubachPaul BartelsBarbara ParodiMeral OzgucPeter Riegman

Karen MeirManuel MorenteLisa MirandaErik SteinfelderJackie Mackenzie-DoddsAldo ScarpaDominic AllenPeter Doran

ESBB’s 2013 Annual Conference will take place in Verona, Italy from the 8th to 11th October. The conference venue will be the Palazzo della Gran Guardia, an impressive building that dates from 1610 and originally served as the headquarters of the city guard. The Gran Guardia is situated on the south side of Piazza Bra and faces the Roman Arena. Altogether a very majestic setting for this year’s conference! This is the third ESBB annual conference following on from Mar-seille (2011) and Granada (2012). These were both highly successful confe-rences, and this year we expect to do even better. Not only have we gained experience, but in addition the society has matured and now boasts a num-ber of active committees and working groups that are developing outstan-ding content for the conference programme. The Granada conference was a joint conference with the Spanish National Biobank Network, and similarly this year, ESBB is collaborating with the Italian node of BBMRI set to hold its “kick-off” meeting the day before the main conference. The theme of the ESBB conference this year is “Biobanking for the Future” and will offer a wide variety of interesting content from across the biobanking spectrum. Sessions include: Global Biobanking, Ancient DNA, Biobanking for Personalised Medicine, Biobanking for Conservation, Sustai-nability of Biobanks and the Financial Crisis, and Innovative Biobanking. The conference will feature invited speakers, contributed papers, poster presentations, corporate workshops and working group meetings. The conference will cater to all parties interested in biobanking from both hu-man specimen and non-human specimen biobanks, with particular empha-sis on issues relevant for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, but of course attendees from all over the world are welcome to attend. Exciting new features this year include the interactive sessions in which audience participation will be facilitated by an electronic voting sys-tem. Topics for these interactive sessions include: “The Life in Data” and “Everything Your Wanted to Know About Collaborating With Industry … But Were Afraid To Ask” and “Harmony for Conservation”. This year also sees the first training course entitled “The Pathology of Biobanking” which will be presented by ESBB and the local organizers. We are also delighted to announce that this year’s conference will feature the “Research Biobank of the Year” competition for the first time. Bio-banks will be nominated through written application before the conference to the judging panel. Information on the nominated biobank should address Quality, Transparency, Usage, Connectivity, Innovation, and Sustainability. The panel will select the top four biobanks which will be presented at the conference where participants select the biobank of the year. Vendors from around the world will demonstrate their latest pro-ducts and services for biobanks. Vendors and the biobanking community will also have the opportunity to engage through the new feature of vendor-gui-ded practical sessions. There will be a full social programme starting with a Welcome Cocktail Reception in the Gran Guardia. This year’s Gala Dinner will be held in the Castelvecchio (Italian: «Old Castle»), a 5-minute walk from Gran Guar-dia, through Verona’s historic city centre. Today, Castelvecchio is home to the local military officers’ club which will host the Gala Dinner. Excellent Italian cuisine, wine and operatic entertainment will be provided.

Important deadlines: Call for abstracts: July 1st 2013Early Registration: July 1st 2013Exhibitor Application & Contract: July 1st 2013For further information please visit: www.esbb.org/verona

This conference has been endorsed by the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories

Tuesday October 8, 201308.30 ESBB training course “The Pathology of Biobanking”. Organised by the Local Organising Committee and the Education & Training Committee. The training course addresses the complexity of integrating tissue collection for research purposes into existing clinical workflows, without interfering with clinical care. The session applies to human and non-human biobanks.

12.00 Lunch

13.30 BBMRI-IT kick-off meeting

Wednesday October 9, 201309.30 ESBB 2013 Opening Ceremony

10.00 Session 1. Global Biobanking - Prof Kurt Zatloukal. Univ Graz, Austria. “An update on the BBMRI-ERIC project” - Dr Charles Rotimi. NIH, Bethesda, MD, USA. “Progress of the H3Africa Project” - Prof Anne Marie Tasse. P3G, Montreal, Canada. “The challenge of optimising the use of already existing resources”

12.30 Lunch / Corporate Workshops / Exhibits open

14.00 Session 2. Ancient DNA - Prof Renato Mariani-Costantini. G. d’Annunzio Univ Chieti, Italy. “The value of Ancient DNA” - Prof Gino Fornaciari. Univ Pisa, Italy - Dr Isabel Rey. Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Madrid, Spain. “Nonhuman ancient DNA extraction and conservation in Natural History Museums: Study of 1500 years old camelids” - Pr Matthew Collins. Univ York, UK. “Pathways of decay of archaeological material”

16.30 Coffee Break / Posters / Exhibits

17.00 Working Groups / Vendor-Guided Practical / Posters / Exhibits

19.00 Welcome Reception

Friday October 11, 201308.00 Corporate Workshop

09.00 Session 5. Innovative Biobanking - Prof Martin Habé de Angelis. Technische Univ, München, Germany. “The European Mouse Mutant Archive - Cryopreservation of genetic diversity for the investigation of human related diseases” - Prof Frank Emmrich. Fraunhofer-Institut für Zelltherapie und Immunologie IZI, Leipzig, Germany. “Biobanking and therapeutic application of stem cells” - Prof Ida Biunno. Institute for Genetic and Biomedical Research, Milan, Italy. “Human iPS Stem Cell Banking”

10.30 Coffee Break / Posters / Exhibits / Corporate Workshop

11.00 Interactive Session 2A “Collaborating with industry: everything you always wanted to know... but were afraid to ask”. Organised by Rita Lawlor and the ESBB translate Working Group

11.00 Interactive Session 2B “Harmony for Conservation”. Organised by the Enviro-Bio Working Group

13.00 Lunch / Posters / Exhibits / Corporate Workshops

14.30 Oral presentations Based on Submitted Abstracts 16.00 Coffee Break

16.30 Society Forum & “Research Biobank of the Year” Competition18.30 Social Event

This interactive session confronts the interests – not always aligned - of the different stakeholders in cancer research biobanking. The session follows the path from patient to pharma, as samples are made available for R&D. It will address the burning question “What’s in it for me?”

This interactive session addresses the urgent need to link conservation biobanks across the globe. Current efforts that focus on strategic banking are inadequate and the problem is compounded by the variety of biobanks involved. Common interests will be sought as the basis for the next steps in harmonisation.

ESBB Annual ConferenceOctober 8-11, 2013

For further information and to register please visit: www.esbb.org/verona

Meeting at a glanceWednesday

Oct. 9TuesdayOct. 8

ThursdayOct. 10

FridayOct. 11

Thursday October 10, 2013 08.00 Corporate Workshop

08.30 Session 3A. Biobanking for Personalised Medicine - Prof Sergey Suchkov. I.M.Sechenov First Moscow State Medical Univ, Moscow, Russia. “PPPM Today: Fundamental Background and Genuine Achievements as an Invitation for Tomorrow” - Prof Meral Ozguc. Hacettepe Univ, Ankara, Turkey. “Genetic testing, rare diseases and biobanking” - Dr Nicola Normanno. Centro Ricerche Oncologiche di Mercogliano, Avellino, Italy. “Personalized medicine for cancer diagnostics” - Prof Evert-Ben van Veen. MedLawconsult, Den Haag, NL. “Genetic tests, ethics and the challenges of health care systems”

08.30 Session 3B. Biobanking for Conservation - Dr Ian Barnes. Royal Holloway, Univ London, UK. “Analysing DNAs from archival/museum specimens using Next Generation Sequencing technologies” - Dr Erica Benson. Damar Research Scientists, Fife, Scotland. “The Relevance of Cryobiological Principles for Biodiversity Conservation” - Dr Keith Harding. Damar Research Scientists, Fife, Scotland. “Cryobionomics: A framework to study linkages between the Post-Storage Viability, Stability and Functionality of Phytodiversity for Environmental Reintroduction”

10.30 Coffee Break / Posters / Exhibits

11.00 Interactive Session 1 “The Life In Data”. Organised by the ESBBperanto and Enviro-Bio Working Groups This interactive session follows the progression of data from collection to use. Hot topics will include specific vs generic consent for use, data protection, data content and harmonization, interpretation of data, return of data results. The session addresses issues common to all biobanks human and non-, whether disease, population, taxonomy, longitudinal or conservation.

13.00 Lunch / Posters / Exhibits / Corporate Workshops

14.30 Session 4. Sustainability of Biobanks and the Financial Crisis - Dr Steve Madore. Coriell Inst for Medical Research, Camden, NJ, USA. “Coriell Biobanking Business model” - Mr Orlando Fernandez-Lago. Xerencia de Xestión Integrada, Santiago de Compostela, Spain. “Clues for cost analysis in hospital based biobanks” - Prof Akin Abayomi. Stellenbosch Univ, Cape Town, South Africa. “Introducing centralised biobanking in Africa, Governance, Sustainability and Community uptake” - Dr Yehudit Cohen. Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer, Israel. “Biobanking on shoestring budgets”

16.30 Coffee Break / Posters / Exhibits

17.00 Vendor-Guided Practical / Poster Discussion / Posters / Exhibits

19.00 Gala Dinner at Castelvecchio