By Paola Foulkes, Wales Cancer Biobank

In October I had the opportunity to present a poster at the ISBER regional symposium hosted by the Biobanco del Sistema Sanitario Público de Andalucía in Granada Spain. The theme of this year’s meeting was focused on biospecimen science, research, and innovation. Over the two days I attended a series talks around the themes of human, environmental and microbial biospecimen science. There were also abstract presentations on a variety of engaging topics from seed biobanking to the first aerospace biobank, collecting samples from the SpaceX Inspiration4 Mission. I also took part in a round table about the preanalytical factors that impacts downstream genomics analysis of tissue samples. This was one of the highlights of the conference as I had the opportunity to learn from others in the field how different biobanks manage pre analytical variables, as well as contribute about the processes at WCB. Over the course of the conference, I met delegates from all over the world including Luxembourg, Kenya and Japan. There was also the opportunity to interact with companies exhibiting their latest biobanking equipment and technologies. Another highlight of the conference was the tour of the biobank at the end, along with winning the interactive quiz based on the conference talks.