Biobank and consortium find home

11.07.10 Stockholm – The Swedish Research Council is commissioning the Stockholm-based Karolinska Institute to host two new national infrastructures for research in biomedicine: the BioBanking and Molecular Resource Infrastructure of Sweden (BBMRI.se) and the Chemical Biology Consortium Sweden (CBCS). Both are being set up in collaboration with other universities, and will provide Swedish scientists open access to laboratories and sample collections, as well as advanced service to faciliate their use.
The BBMRI.se is a national effort to connect all Swedish biobanks in a single, nationwide network that will be part of the European biobank initiative BBMRI.eu. The Swedish network is being financed with SEK148m (EUR15.4m) from the Swedish Research Council and 30SEKm (EUR3.1m) from the Karolinska Institute, which will also be the host university for BBMRI.se. Just over half of the grant will be used for a large automated facility to store specimens being built in Flemingsberg. “We will standardise collection, collaborate on how to use current material, and develop quality standards and routines,” said Prof. Joakim Dillner, the coordinator for BBMRI.se.
The CBCS consists of a new research laboratory at the Karolinska Institute that will be coordinated with existing activities at Umeå and Uppsala Universities to create opportunities for scientists to identify and develop bioactive small molecules through screening and pharmaceutical chemistry. The Swedish Research Council will contribute SEK55m (EUR6.7m) to CBCS, and the Karolinska Institute will provide at least SEK12.5m (EUR1.3m). The CBCS is integrated into the European Infrastructure of Open Screening Platforms for Chemical Biology. The majority of the infrastructure, containing over 70,000 high quality screening compounds, was donated by the biotech company Biovitrum AB.