From April 9 to April 12, 2024, the 2024 Annual Meeting of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) was held in Melbourne, Australia. The conference announced that Chen Zhenjia, Director of the Cooperation and Publicity Department of Shenzhen National Gene Bank, was elected as the President of ISBER China.
At this international event, a sample of practitioners from well-known universities, hospitals and scientific research institutions from all over the world were brought together, with old and new faces complementing each other, and many professionals with unique insights gathered together to discuss and collide ideas, and were full of expectations for future cooperation. The conference not only focused on core topics such as application directions and sharing of biological sample resources, but also paid close attention to hot topics such as environmental protection issues, biodiversity and the application of AI technology in the field of biobanking, which attracted much attention in recent years, which stimulated the participants' innovative thinking and enthusiasm for cooperation.
Among them, the Global Cooperation Symposium invited representatives of sample banks from China, Australia, Japan, India, South Africa and other countries to discuss the future development prospects and challenges of global biobanks. Chen Zhenjia delivered a keynote speech on behalf of the Shenzhen National Gene Bank. In view of the complex international environment that China's sample bank is currently facing, Chen Zhenjia put forward a strategy on how to break down information barriers and meet challenges. At the same time, he stressed the importance of relying on professional international organizations such as ISBER to closely unite various institutions and improve the efficiency of resource utilization. Chen Zhenjia's speech analyzed the pain points faced by many sample banks in the development process in simple terms, which aroused enthusiastic responses from the guests, and conducted in-depth and fruitful exchanges with Chen Zhenjia after the meeting, and discussed potential cooperation opportunities in order to achieve a win-win situation.
In the poster display area, the Shenzhen National Gene Bank also attracted the attention of many global peers. They stopped one after another and had in-depth and detailed communication with the staff of the Shenzhen National Gene Bank on storage capacity, operation scale and automation level, so as to fully understand the advantages and strength of the Shenzhen National Gene Bank.
In addition, Best Practices has been gaining traction as an ideal introductory textbook for newcomers to the panel and a handy reference manual for experienced professionals. At this conference, "Best Practices: Biobank Recommendations (Fifth Edition)" was officially released! The Chinese version of Shenzhen National Genebank will also be available soon, so stay tuned.
About ISBER:
Founded in 1999, the International Society of Biological and Environmental Libraries (ISBER) is one of the most influential international organizations of biobank associations and is a large international organization that addresses technical, legal, ethical and management issues related to biological and environmental sample banks. ISBER fosters collaboration, creates education and training opportunities, and provides international presentations of state-of-the-art policies, processes, research results, and innovative technologies, products and services, and together promotes the widespread adoption of best practices in the panel.