It is a fact that the European population is getting older and therefore has an increasing need, both social and economical, to live a healthier life and to find cures for devastating diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer or HIV. To accomplish that goal, sharing the access to samples of blood, tissue, DNA, proteins and other human and genetic materials will be essential. That is the main rational behind the project to create a European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) which was presented on Wednesday at the European Parliament.
BBMRI is an unprecedented initiative with currently more than 50 participants, both public and private, from 21 different countries and over 150 associated organisations. The project has already received approval for 5 million Euro through the Seventh Framework Program. In the next 2 years they will undertake the preparatory work regarding management, legal framework, financing, ethical guidance, intellectual property, data protection, and other relevant technical matters. During that time, it will be crucial to obtain the necessary commitment from the member states to cover the largest share of the overall estimated costs.
As the chair of the BBMRI steering committee Leena Peltonen noted, Europe "has already the tools and the resources to set up this network so scientist are able to understand the biology behind any disease". This advantageous position offers the EU a unique chance to gain competitiveness and to become even more attractive for future research and investment by the pharmaceutical industry.
Along the same lines, the coordinator of the project Kurt Zatloukal highlighted the importance of a European biobanking infrastructure "to avoid duplication and to reduce the current fragmentation" among research centres, hospitals, universities, and the private sector. Biobanks contain biological material and the data related to the donors including demographic, lifestyle and environmental information, which in many cases has been collected many years ago. That is why professor Zatloukal stressed out the importance of the BBMRI to "develop now the means for future research".
Through the use of large samples of biological human materials, scientists and doctors alike will be able "to avoid the constant trial and error process to find an effective treatment by using customized cures targeting different types of patients, which will result into better health but also into socio-economic benefits", explained Gert-Jan van Ommen, chair of the scientific advisory board of BBMRI.
Members of the coordinating team also addressed two of the biggest concerns about the BBMRI: data protection and the quality of the samples. They made clear that data security for biobanks is only based on national legislation, which will need to be harmonized in order to find ways to protect scientific data from non scientific use. Regarding quality, all the speakers agreed on the urgency to set up common standards for future collections. However, it will be equally important to prepare an inventory of what is already available and the potential uses for existing samples, even if they are not in the best condition.
The head of the research infrastructure unit of the EU Commission's DG Research, Hervé Pero, pointed out the importance of creating a new legal framework to facilitate the development of European Research Infrastructures (ERI) such as the BBMRI. That is one of the new specific initiatives that will directly follow from the public consultation on the Green Paper "The European Research Area: New Perspectives" to be launched in the coming months.
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