Press Release
Uppsala, 21.08.2015
Kicking off a groundbreaking Africa–EU partnership in biomedical sciences: Foundation of a global research infrastructure for biobanking
The University of the Western Cape, Cape Town (South Africa) is hosting the first meeting of the newly launched project B3Africa – Bridging Biobanking and Biomedical Research across Europe and Africa on 24–25 August 2015.
The rapidly evolving African biobanks are invaluable for biomedical research because the African population has the greatest genomic diversity on the planet and represents an incredible resource of information to advance fundamental understanding of health and disease.
“We have no time to lose,” says Professor Alan Christoffels, from the University of the Western Cape and the South African National Bioinformatics Institute. “Connecting bioresources from Africa and Europe and providing adequate technology will revolutionize how we perform research. The easy-to-use technical solutions will allow the participation of researchers from different regions regardless of the level of development and networking capabilities, and will make it possible to include many research institutions as equal partners in the global effort to improve health and well-being”.
Eleven partners from African and European countries are jointly developing a collaboration framework and an informatics infrastructure that will accelerate and facilitate biomedical research across the continents to address global health challenges together. Via the Horizon 2020 work programme, the European Commission is providing a budget of about 2 million euros over a period of 3 years for the B3Africa initiative, which involves a highly motivated group that is ready to get to work.
Biological specimens have been collected for decades, but only since the late 1990s have biobanks been established in a more systematic way. Biobanks collect and store a variety of (mostly human) samples from tissue, cells, blood, saliva, plasma, or DNA. These samples are essential in biomedical research to understand disease mechanisms and develop new therapies. “Access to high-quality biological samples is the number one requirement to advance biomedical research. The technology exists”, explains Professor Jan-Eric Litton, one of the initiators of the European biobanking infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC, “but policy-makers will have to learn to view biological samples as key raw material for 21st century medical science.”
B3Africa has two strategic aims:
- Create a harmonized ethical and legal framework between European and African partner institutions. A common ethical and legal framework is essential for a trustworthy informatics platform that will enable the sharing of bioresources and data and will also consolidate cooperation in biobanking between Africa and Europe.
- Provide an “out-of-the-box” informatics solution that facilitates data management, processing, and sharing and can also be used under challenging networking conditions in Africa and Europe.
Partners in B3Africa are:
Sveriges Lantbruksuniversitet (SLU), Sweden; Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC), Austria; Karolinska Institutet (KI), Sweden; Centre for Research Ethics & Bioethics (CRB) at Uppsala University, Sweden; University of the Western Cape (UWC), South Africa; Makerere University (MAK), Uganda; Stellenbosch University (SU), South Africa; International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), France; International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), Kenya; Medizinische Universität Graz (MUG), Austria; and Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), Nigeria.
Contact:
Dr. Erik Bongcam-Rudloff
Website: www.b3africa.org