Page 37 - Roadmap

7.3. HEALTH AND FOOD SCIENCES

BIOBANKS AND ANIMAL CORE FACILITIES RESEARCH INFRASTRUCTURE GROUP

Presentation of the RI group
Hungarian biobank networks have altogether 35 registered members, all licensed by the State Public Health and Medical
Officer Service. Two universities’ biobank networks have adopted an operational policy approved by the Senate. One
biobank network is a member of the BBMRI ERIC. Currently, in the framework of projects co-funded by the Structural
Funds, several research groups and RIs are being established to join the Biobanks and animal core facilities RI group.

Biobanks provide services for basic and applied research at universities, and statistics for feasibility tests in the prepa-
ration of clinical trials related to rare diseases. Biobanks with genomics databases support ongoing research projects by
identifying population-specific genetic variants. The data structures of individual biobanks are extremely varied which
prevents interoperability between biobank networks.

Nationally, 7 animal core facilities have been identified within the Life Sciences Working Group. These include central
animal core facilities at 5 universities and animal testing activities at 2 universities coordinated by 3 large animal core
facilities.

National coordinator of the RI group: Background information
Semmelweis University The number of members and the central regulation of operation
vary by university biobank network. Not all Hungarian biobanks
Contact: Mária Judit Molnár have joined the BBMRI ERIC, and not all of them have a Senate
Email: molnar.mariajudit@med.semmelweis-univ.hu approved operational policy in place. The establishment of the
Website: http://semmelweis.hu/genomikai-medicina/ MOLMEDEX Biobank is currently in progress, and it will belong
to the Biobanks RI group. Most institutes of the Hungarian
Partners: Academy of Sciences operate a central animal core facility. DE and
Biobanks: DE Biobank Network (4 members); PTE Biobank Network; SE SE have grouped animal housing and care tasks into 3-3 core fa-
Biobank Network (15 members); SZTE Biobank Network (15 members) cilities.
Animal core facilities: DE Animal Core Facility; ELTE Central Animal
Core Facility; MTA KOKI Central Animal Core Facility; MTA SZBK Aim of the RI group
Central Animal Core Facility; PTE Central Animal Core Facility; SE; One of the main development directions of the RI group is to har-
SZTE Central Animal Core Facility monise biobank activities in Hungary (harmonisation of standard
operations and data to be collected) and provide quality assurance
ESFRI connection: ELIXIR; BBMRI-ERIC; ECRIN-ERIC for Hungarian biobanks. Another goal is to connect all domestic
SRIs with the BBMRI ERIC, and to involve the biobank networks
Status of the RI group: under implementation of MOLMEDEX members in MOLMEDEX research projects.
As a long-term objective, biobank databases should be made com-
patible with each other. This primarily requires digital technology
developments, which in turn would also make it possible to in-
crease the openness with a uniform nationally visible biobank
database. The storage and visibility of genomic research data in a
national database would strongly support domestic genomics re-
search.

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