The reconfiguration of biobanks in Europe under the BBMRI-ERIC framework : towards global sharing nodes?
Argudo-Portal, Violeta (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psicologia Social)
Domènech i Argemí, Miquel (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Departament de Psicologia Social)

Date:	2020
Abstract:	Freezers with biospecimen deposits became biobanks and later were networked at the pan-European level in 2013 under the Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure-European Research Infrastructure Consortium (BBMRI-ERIC). Drawing on document analysis about the BBMRI-ERIC and multi-sited fieldwork with biobankers in Spain from a science and technology studies approach, we explore what biobanks are expected to do and become under the BBMRI-ERIC framework, and how infrastructural transitions promote particular transformations in biobanking practices. The primary purpose of biobanks in Europe is presented as being to become mediators in contemporary biomedical research (global sharing nodes) distribution, and distributed nodes of samples and their associated data. We argue that infrastructural transitions are complicated and heterogeneous, giving rise to unattended local concerns on adjusting their practices to fit into the BBMRI-ERIC framework, even for non-members, as the case of Spain illustrates, where "old practices" of collection and storage are questioned. In this article, we aim to encourage qualitative studies to explore the lags between pan-European policies and prospects, different contextual interpretations, and biobanking reconfigurations as an opportunity to explore what that lag is made of (e. g. tensions with "old practices," unresolved conflicts with the national agendas, reservations on a possible centralization of the biobanking practices by regional biobanks, lack of funding, etc. ). Such research could enrich not only policy guidance, but also the understanding of technoscientific infrastructures' scalability.
Note:	The research presented in this paper was made possible by "la Caixa" Foundation (ID 100010434), under agreement LCF/BQ/DE17/11600017
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Biobanks ; Europe ; Infrastructure ; Global ; Biomedical research ; Mediator ; Spain ; Network ; Scalability ; Science and technology studies (STS)
Published in:	Life sciences, society and policy, Vol. 16 (october 2020) , ISSN 2195-7819

DOI: 10.1186/s40504-020-00105-3
PMID: 33000342

15 p, 454.2 KB

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