Slovenia becomes 24th Member of the BBMRI-ERIC European Research Infrastructure Consortium

Slovenia has been confirmed as a Member of the BBMRI-ERIC (Biobank and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure) European Research Infrastructure Consortium focused on the biobanking and biomolecular research, with the statutory seat based in Graz, Austria. Slovenia was approved as a new Member by the BBMRI-ERIC Assembly of Members on 19th November 2021.  As one of the founding Members, Czechia also participates in the consortium – via the BBMRI-CZ (Bank of Clinical Specimens) large research infrastructure. The BBMRI European research infrastructure processes and stores the human biological material and associated clinical data in the long term and makes them available to scientific users. The BBMRI-ERIC consortium brings together over 700 biobanks operated by Members. The BBMRI-ERIC Directory is the largest sample catalogue in the world, thus fulfilling the BBMRI-ERIC’s main mission to facilitate access to biological samples, data and biomolecular resources.

BBMRI-CZ: Bank of Clinical Specimens

Slovenian national node of BBMRI-ERIC

The Slovenian national biobanking node BBMRI.SI was established in 2020 as a consortium of three Slovenian public universities – the University of Maribor, the University of Ljubljana and the University of Primorska, and the University Medical Centre Maribor. It’s multidisciplinary in its nature, bringing together knowledge on medicine, health sciences, chemistry and engineering, as well as information technologies and law. Slovenian biobanks collect all types of human samples, ranging from liquid and solid tissues to fresh-frozen and formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples to isolated cells and different extracts of biomolecules. Some of the better-known Slovenian biobanks include the Biobank of Skeletal Muscle Biopsies of the Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, the Viral Biobank of the Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana, the Biobank of Kidney Tissues of the University Medical Centre Maribor, and the Biobank of Autoimmune Diseases of the Medical Faculty, University of Maribor.

Prof Urban Bren, the BBMRI.SI coordinator