Innovative approaches in large-scale research infrastructures

The covid-19 pandemic has made the strengths of biobanks and research partnership even more prominent. The availability of stored positive samples combined with other biological samples and clinical data from the same individuals will enable unprecedented host-pathogen genetics studies. The large number of samples collected from covid-19 serology studies can potentially be used in conjunction with epidemiological data and general health data to elucidate factors relevant for studying covid-19 immunity.

These factors combined makes biobanks and large datasets attractive to both academia and industry. In the recent years several drugs have been developed based on genetic discoveries from biobank material. This availability of large-scale datasets from biological material is very attractive for the pharmaceutical industry and has led to increased funding from industry partners for large scale genetic projects. All in all there is an increasing focus on public-private partnerships.

With this biobank symposium, we will bring together world leading biobanks and researchers and discuss how we can use innovative approaches and expanded cooperation with the pharmaceutical industry to improve health care.

The symposium is kindly sponsored by the Novo Nordisk Foundation.

Below you can find a selection of recorded presentations from the symposium.