Dare to Dream—Building the Future of Biobanking: A Summary of the ISBER Annual Meeting, April 9–12

ISBER would like to present the following ISBER Corner article on, Dare to Dream—Building the Future of Biobanking: A Summary of the ISBER Annual Meeting, April 9–12, 2024 to our membership by Cassandra Griffin, Gregory Grossman and Amanda Moors.

Dare to Dream! These were words that felt surreal to utter after a year of preparation and planning for one of the biggest biobanking conferences on the 2024 calendar—the 2024 annual meeting of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER, www.isber.org). Mere weeks ago, we were fortunate enough to cochair the ISBER annual meeting on Aussie shores, and for anyone who was present, I think you’ll agree it was a raging success! Our meeting was grounded in the shared values of governance, stewardship, altruism, and One Health, but elevated by the challenge to dream beyond the current barriers biobanks face and envision a bold future. It was a pleasure to come together with friends and colleagues from across the globe to build this future, bringing our core values, aspirations, and successes into the next generation of biobanking.

Monday, April 8, saw delegates arriving from all corners of the globe, but as soon as they arrived and checked their bags, they were on buses to some of Melbourne’s best-known biobanking institutions—MCRI Biobank, Biobank Victoria, Precision Medicine, and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre. Accounts from all who attended were glowing, and for those who coordinated and delivered the tours, you really did ISBER proud and showcased the strength and broad scope of Aussie Biobanking! For a smaller group of us, there was a fourth site visit to the seed bank at Melbourne Botanic Gardens. One of the largest collections in Australia, it was fascinating to see the approaches taken and the challenges they are facing. Having a diverse range of biobanks available to our ISBER members provided an opportunity to reflect on the synergies and similarities present between the different disciplines that make up our profession.

On Tuesday, April 9, we hit the ground running with a joyous welcome ceremony that included a heartfelt welcome to the country by Perry Wandin, an elder of the Wurundjeri people whose land we held our annual meeting on. Symposium 1 kicked off with a riveting keynote on the de-extinction efforts and work of Professor Andrew Pask on the Tasmanian Tiger or the Thylacine. Delegates were captivated as he spoke of his proactive biobanking efforts to avoid future extinction events and shared his progress on returning this much-loved native species to Tasmania. The session that followed took us on a journey exploring the role of biobanking for conservation and the importance of environmental conservation for human health, and then came full circle with consideration on the impact of biobanking on the environment. Spoiler alert, this was not the last conversation we had on decarbonization—a theme that continued to arise throughout the week and we predict will continue to be a hot topic. Our next session was Part 1 of ISBER’s 25th anniversary celebration, and we heard from two ISBER past presidents, Marianna Bledsoe and Daniel Catchpoole, providing a historical context to ISBER’s role and impact on global biobanking. Tuesday ended with a strong field of ISBER Education and Training workshops, including strategies for overcoming publication barriers and a dedicated ‘Green Biobanking’ workshop, before the opening of the sponsor hall and welcome reception.

Wednesday, April 10, was an early start for those of us who signed up for the Fun Run (a concept that remains an oxymoron for many). For Amanda and Cass, this was somewhat of a sentimental moment. We were immediately taken back to the 2019 ISBER Annual Meeting during which we met for the first time and completed the Shanghai Fun Run (walk)—sparking a personal connection that remains 5 years later. The personal connections and networking are some of the most valuable aspects of our meetings. The Wednesday sessions began with Emma Snapes and Greg Grossman presenting “Insights from ISBER’s Latest Best Practices,” where attendees learned about the 5th edition of the ISBER Best Practices (https://www.isber.org/page/BPR) with considerations on how to best implement them. This was followed by two concurrent symposia. 2A was a fascinating symposium titled “Transforming Biobanking and Research with AI: A New Era of Discovery and Innovation,” cochaired by Marianne Henderson and Koh Furtura, with an introduction by Daniel Catchpoole. This session covered the fascinating and timely topics of synthetic data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and computational biology. Conversations sparked by the panel discussion were vibrant and thought-provoking and are likely to be key topics of consideration in future ISBER meetings. Symposium 2B was cochaired by Deb Leiolani Garcia and Samantha Higgins and was titled “A BioBank Blueprint: Human-Centered Design & Improvement.” The symposium was focused on the human elements of our biobanking ecosystem, exploring various approaches to workflow development and stakeholder engagement. Corporate workshops and innovative technology abstracts followed a scrumptious lunch before the first of two concurrent abstract sessions. Delegates spent the evening enjoying the sights and tastes of Melbourne, which certainly didn’t disappoint!

The morning of Thursday, April 11, started with a series of roundtable discussions ranging from biobank utilization and how we measure success to solving the food crisis and the role of cultured meat. Much “food” for thought, in a city heralded as a foodie paradise. In Symposium 3B, titled “The Power of Specimen and Data Banking-DNA the Hidden Gem,” Cass was joined by Anusha Hettiaratchi in cochairing a symposium, codeveloped with Georget Reaiche-Mille. This focused on the role of DNA in biobanking. We heard from researchers biobanking DNA from violent offenders, the UK Home Office using DNA to identify missing persons, those banking DNA from echidna poo (fun fact: It’s called a scat and it’s shiny), from those working with ancient DNA, and a fascinating discussion on wastewater biobanking and the social and ethical issues associated with it. Concurrently, Symposium 3A was titled “The Power of Biobanks in the Era of Precision Medicine” and was cochaired by Yan Ru Su and Daniel Catchpoole. This symposium was also a resounding success with current and future points for consideration in the field of precision medicine and biobanking’s integral role in this growing area. The afternoon saw ISBER members come together to discuss global perspectives on the future of biobanking in a session cochaired by Clare Alocca and Allison Parry-Jones with panelists, including the ISBER Annual Meeting cochairs, Anusha Hettiaratchi, Dave Merrit, Louise Ludlow, Birendra Kumar Yadav, Jason Chen, Hiroki Nakae, and Kim Labuschagne.

The ISBER Annual General Meeting (AGM) followed, and awards were bestowed upon Marta Castelhano from the Cornell Veterinary Biobank (USA) for Outstanding Achievement in Biobanking, the ISBER 2024 Leadership Award to Diane McGarvey from the University of Pennsylvania (USA), and the 2024 Special Service Awards to Koh Furuta from Chiba Medical Center (Japan) and Rocío Aguilar-Quesada from Biobanco del Sistema Sanitario Publico de Andalucia (Spain). We offer our congratulations to all four and were delighted to celebrate their achievements. We then witnessed the transition of the presidency from Alison Parry-Jones to incoming President Dayong Gao. Alison has been a wonderful and impactful president, and we want to congratulate her on her term as president. We’d also like to welcome incoming ISBER President Dayong Gao and look forward to his tenure. The day was capped off by the much-anticipated ISBER Silver Celebration—a gala networking evening that included dancing, trivia, scavenger hunts, and a wonderful banquet topped off with a signature event cocktail. The Aussie trivia was quite enjoyable and entertaining!

Friday, April 12, began with slightly sore heads! We fronted up for a 7am workshop exploring the Communities of Practices (CoPs) embedded within the ISBER community. It was enlightening to hear about the work of the Science Policy, Standards, and the Education and Training CoPs. Following more roundtables and contributed article sessions, we proceeded into the final symposium—Rising Stars cochaired by Deb Leiolani Garcia, Sandra Nanyonga, and Karena Pryce. It was a privilege to attend this session with representatives from China, Uganda, and Malaysia, and it was truly inspiring to hear about the experiences shared of overcoming adversity and disaster. The future of biobanking is indeed luminous with these bright minds charting new paths. After our final workshops, we came together for the second part of the anniversary celebrations and closing remarks. We heard from President-Elect Greg Grossman and were inspired by his words. Greg had the honor to read President Dayong’s inaugural message to the members and shared a video produced by Dayong, honoring ISBER’s past and forecasting its strong future. The future of biobanking is here, and it’s within our power to shape it into whatever we dream it could be!

Our ISBER annual meeting in Australia was an event we can all be proud of, and we would like to convey our sincerest thanks to the ISBER Program Planning Task Force, the ISBER Local Engagement Task Force, ISBER Communities of Practices, and ISBER Head Office. We truly appreciate your dedication, ideas and hard work. We also want to convey our gratitude to all our delegates, who shared their experience, ideas, and energy throughout the meeting. We look forward to our next opportunities to convene and continue these important conversations. The ISBER regional meeting will be held in beautiful St. Petersburg, Florida, November 5–6, 2024 (https://www.isber.org/page/2024Regional), and the next ISBER Annual Meeting will take place in stunning Montréal, Québec, Canada, May 13–16, 2025. Be sure to look out for updates and opportunities to contribute. We can’t wait to see you all again!

Please click the following link to view the article:
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/10.1089/bio.2024.0073