In response to a specific infrastructure call of the FP7 of the European Commission, BBMRI-LPC (Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure – Large Prospective Cohorts) a European-wide project involving 30 partners from 17 countries, has received a 8M € funding to enhance access by academic and industry scientists to the largest European ‘biobanks’.

The project represents the next phase of the successful EU biobanking programme BBMRI, which was operational from 2007-2011. BBMRI-LPC led by the University Medical Centers of Helsinki and Leiden will now run for the following 4 years. The project will specifically focus on large population cohorts and aims to enable academic and industrial scientists to improve our understanding of human biology, thereby leading to novel and better medicines and treatments for common and rare diseases.

BBMRI-LPC endeavors to unite the large study sets of the European Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) and the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), thereby achieving a biobanking network with a scale of integration that is unique worldwide. BBMRI-LPC will assist the European health industry by promoting new and existing public-private partnerships, which will strengthen the European niche in the development of medicine and treatments as well as assist governments in returning the investment made by all European tax payers.

The role of the CNAG
The CNAG will mainly contribute to the project with its sequencing competence and capability to upgrade thevalue of biobanked material through whole genome sequencing and RNA sequencing, and the analysis andtransfer of the data to the Infrastructure user and the biobank providing the biological sample.