On September 14th -15th ,2015, the “5th Annual Biobank & Precision Medicine China 2015 Conference (ABC2015)”, under the name of “Fenglin Seminar”, was held at Shanghai Lake Meilan International Convention Center, which was also the “4th International Conference on the Standard Construction of Beijing Biobank of Clinical Resources”, and the “1st China Cellular Resources Biostorage & Application Symposium”. Centering on the internationally hot issue of “precision medicine” in the field of biomedicine, “ABC2015” provided panel discussions specific to the needs of biobanking. This year the event was organized by Shanghai Clinical Research Center (SCRC) together with Capital Medical University, National Gene Bank, Shanghai Shenkang Hospital Development center and Shanghai Engineering & Research Center of Biobank. This conference attracted international counterparts from about 10 foreign countries, including America, Britain, France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Russia, Austria, and India, as well as about 500 delegates from China, covering 20 provinces and cities and over 200 medical institutions.

        On September 14th, Prof. Gan Rongxing, SCRC Director, Prof. Wangpeng from Capital Medical University, Key Personnel of Beijing Biobank of Clinical Resources, Dr. Zhou Xin, Executive Director of International Gene Bank, respectively addressed the opening of ABC2015. The keynote speakers in this conference included Yang Huanming, Academician of CAS and Chairman of BGI, Zhan Qimin, Academician of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College and Chinese Academy of Engineering, Mr. Jim Vaught, Director of NCI-BBRB and President of ISBER, Prof. Li Liming, Party Secretary and Executive Vice-President of Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College, and Mr. Joakim Lundeberg, Dean of the Department of Gene Technology at Royal Institute of Technology (KTH).

        On the opening ceremony, SCRC Director Gan Rongxing extended his thanks to all the delegates both from abroad and at home. He pointed out that the former 4 annual biobank conferences had given a vigorous boost to the development of biobank in China and its international exchange and cooperation. Moreover, China paid increasingly intense attention to and provided strong support for biobank and big data. In Director Gan’s eyes, biobank was a fundamental and strategic resource for precision medical research. In addition to the above-mentioned 4 organizing institutions, ABC2015 got the particular support from the Office for Human Genetic Resources Management of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, Shanghai Biobank Network and Committee of Science and technology of Xuhui District. In this year, SCRC cooperated with Capital Medical University as usual, but also with Beijing Genomics Institute. These three parties jointly built the platform for international collaboration and exchanges on biobank. In addition, the event this year added discussions about the institution-and-industry cooperation, for instance, the panel sessions related to cell therapy, aiming to drive forward the combination between scientific research and industry.

        In this conference, over 40 oversea and domestic experts and scholars from the fields of precision medicine and biobank made in-depth analyses of precision medicine and biobank, interpreted the latest regulations of biobank management in China, and shared their experiences in standard biobank construction, thus presenting promising prospect of health industry development in China in the future. Speakers from the Office for Human Genetic Resources Management of China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, National Institutes of Health (NIH), BBMRI, Public Population Project in Genomics (P3G), ISBER, ISO, AABB, CAP, I, Beijing Biobank of Clinical Resources, and National Gene Bank, etc., all gave detailed introduction of their requirements in biobank construction, application and management, and shared their experiences in these respects.

 

             

        On the afternoon of September 14th, the “1st China Cellular Resources Biostorage & Application Symposium” opened, receiving both international and domestic concern. Many experts in the field of cellular resources were invited to make keynote speeches. Prof. Shi Yufang from Shanghai Institutes for Biological Sciences of CAS and Prof. Xu Guotong, President of from the Medical School of Tongji University, introduced respectively the latest development of the field related to immune cells and stem cells; Donna Regan, Chairman of AABB, elaborated on the international certification related to cell storage and cell therapy; two speakers from the department of eastern hepatobiliary surgery at Second Military Medical University gave keynote speeches on the storage and application of immune cells.

 

               

 

        The afternoon of September 15th saw the starting of training on site construction, operation and practice of biobanking. Delegates from SCRC, Avantech, and LBD Life Science Co. Ltd. shared their experience in site construction of biobank, discussed the status quo of biobanking overseas and at home as well as the existing problems involved, and investigate how to construct and manage biobank. In addition, they showed the achievement they had got by now and the problems handled.

        In addition, this conference attracted about 20 enterprises related to biobanking to exhibit their solutions, latest products and technologies relevant to biobanking. These enterprises included Haier, Avantech, LBD Life Science Co. Ltd., ThermoFisher, Gold-Sim, Illumina, affymetrix, CryoScienc, IMV Technologies, Wiley Biotech, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Cell Therapy, Zhong Ke Du Ling, Shengsheng Logistics, DefiniGEN, Hamilton, etc.