Nov.10^th, 2012--- China Biobank Development Strategy Workshop was held successfully in Shanghai Hotel by Shanghai Consulting & Academic Activities Center for Academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Shanghai Clinical Research Center (SCRC), Division of Medicine and Public Health, Chinese Academy of Engineering, and Zhongshan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University. Mr. Wei He, Ministry of Health of the People's Republic of China, Ms. Yihong Hu, Director of China National Center for Biotechnology Development and Mr, Yuren Wang, Director of Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, together with more than 50 leading overseas and domestic experts participated this meeting, including Dr. Xishan Hao ,Dr. Lin He and Dr. Shengli Yang, the academicians of Chinese Academy of Engineering

 

"As precious resources for both basic and clinical research, biobank serves as a significant cornerstone for translational medical research and drug development", said Mr. Wei He, "China has vast biobank resources, the government has issued regulations in human resources administration and put biobank development as priority in Governmental grants and plans in healthy research. The first step we may take is to set up National Biobank in Beijing and Shanghai, and then we will consider expanding to other regions when matured." Dr. Kurt Zatloukal, Coordinator of ESFRI, Biomedical and Biobanking Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI), Dr. Roland Andersson, Vice Dean of Medical Faculty, Lund University, and Professor Dongfeng Tan from University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center also shared their advanced experiences of biobank construction in both Europe and US. Dr. Rongxing Gan, President of SCRC, elaborated on the important role of the 3^rd-party platform played in developing standardized bio-bank resource sharing, sample storage, quality control and information management.

 

The workshop was concluded by Dr. Shengli Yang, who said in the closing remarks that through the workshop, experts have exchanged experiences mainly in sample storage, bioinformatics management, standardization, and ethical issue. Biobank is playing an increasingly important role, but we face a series of challenges, and we need to work together to find solutions and further promote biobank development in China.