Why a Virtual Global Biorepository? – Towards a Global Network of Biorepositories

1. October 10th 2011 Why a Virtual Global Biorepository? –Towards a Global Network of Biorepositories Ole Seberg Natural History Museum of Denmark

2. Natural History Collections The Natural History Museum, London National Museum of Natural History, Washington Stockholm Berlin Copenhagen Paris Natural History Museum of Denmark

3. GGI and Environmental Biorepositories What are the problems? • The Biological Problem – • the Agony of Choice • The Status, Scale, and Organisation • of existent repositories • The Quality Issue • The Informatics Problem • Limitations in access Natural History Museum of Denmark

4. The Number of Eukaryote Species on Earth Mora, C. et al. 2011. How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biology: e100127. Natural History Museum of Denmark

5. The Number of Eukaryote Species in the Ocean Mora, C. et al. 2011. How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biology: e100127. Natural History Museum of Denmark

6. The Number of “Known” Eukaryote Species on the Globe Mora, C. et al. 2011. How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biology: e100127. Natural History Museum of Denmark

7. The ”Species Scape” Mora, C. et al. 2011. How Many Species Are There on Earth and in the Ocean? PLoS Biology: e100127. Groombrige, B. & Jenkins, M. D. 2002. World Alas of Biodiversity: p. 19 Natural History Museum of Denmark

8. What to Preserve? – Are all Species Equal? • The charismatic species? • The nearly extinct species? • The threatened species? • The ecologically important/unique species? • The economically important and potentially important species? • The evolutionary important/unique species? • The taxonomically important/unique species? • The genetically important/unique species? • The carriers of important/unique genes? • .........etc. Natural History Museum of Denmark

9. What to ‘Collect’? – Systematics and the Agony of Choice Natural History Museum of Denmark

10. What to Preserve? – Are all Species Equal? • Avoid unnecessary duplications • Decide what to collect and exchange • Decide what to dispose of VS. • The need for immediate access • The replacement cost • The irreplaceable objects Natural History Museum of Denmark

11. Summary: • What biological resources should be preserved? • Who should be responsible for their preservation? • How can Biorepositories cope with the vast quantity of information and products emerging from the genomics revolution? Natural History Museum of Denmark

12. GGI and Environmental Biorepositories What are the problems? • The Biological Problem – • the Agony of Choice • The Status, Scale, and Organisation • of existent repositories • The Quality Issue • The Informatics Problem • Limitations in access Natural History Museum of Denmark

13. Relative Sizes of Invertebrate Collections Natural History Collections/ Biorepositories Lessons from Europe Tissue DNA Natural History Museum of Denmark

14. Relative Sizes of Mammals Collections Natural History Collections/ Biorepositories Lessons from Europe Tissue Tissue Tissue DNA Natural History Museum of Denmark

15. GGI and Environmental Biorepositories What are the problems? • The Biological Problem – • the Agony of Choice • The Status, Scale, and Organisation • of existent repositories • The Quality Issue • The Informatics Problem • Limitations in access Natural History Museum of Denmark

16. The quality issue • Quality management/quality assurance • across all BRCs • Authenticity of the samples, accuracy of • labelling, databases and bioinformatics • Standards for ensuring long-term stability • of samples • Standards for citation of material Natural History Museum of Denmark

17. Natural History Collections/BiorepositoriesLesson from Europe Tissue Fish Birds Seeds Fungi Algae Plants Protists Lichens Mammals Other vert. Invertebrates Other Invert. Natural History Museum of Denmark

18. Natural History Collections/BiorepositoriesLessons from Europe DNA Fish Birds Fungi Algae Seeds Plants Protists Lichens Mammals Other vert. Invertebrates Other Invert. Natural History Museum of Denmark

19. BRC Task Force Products • Biological Resource Centers (BRC) • 66-page report released by the OECD in March, 2001 • 7 chapters: • Need for BRCs • Increasing Challenges of Biodiversity and Genomics • Long-term Financial Support • Ensuring Quality & Expertise • Access & Restrictions • Global Network of BRCs • Call for Action Natural History Museum of Denmark Natural History Museum of Denmark

20. GGI and Environmental Biorepositories What are the problems? • The Biological Problem – • the Agony of Choice • The Status, Scale, and Organisation • of existent repositories • The Quality Issue • The Informatics Problem • Limitations in access Natural History Museum of Denmark

21. Towards an Integrated Global Network of Biorepository • Establishment of a Global internet platform for Biorepositories, by • Liaise with National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) and Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, www.gbif.org) to secure optimal information exchange and reliability. • Establishing and expanding types and levels of database documentation (e.g. extension of ABCDDNA) and evaluate possible demands on database language modules Natural History Museum of Denmark

22. GGI and Environmental Biorepositories What are the problems? • The Biological Problem – • the Agony of Choice • The Status, Scale, and Organisation • of existent repositories • The Quality Issue • The Informatics Problem • Limitations in access Natural History Museum of Denmark

23. Factors limiting access • Protection health and safety • Import/export regulations • Intellectual property rights (IPR) protection • Material transfer agreements • Protection of commercial rights Natural History Museum of Denmark

24. Access and Benefit Sharing Natural History Museum of Denmark

25. Access and Benefit Sharing Natural History Museum of Denmark

26. Policy ImplementationLessons from Europe Natural History Museum of Denmark

27. Policy ImplementationLesson from Europe Natural History Museum of Denmark

28. What should a virtual biorepository network provide? • Preserve global natural genetic diversity • Facilitate research and good scientific practice in biodiversity genomics • Secure easy access and exchange of non- human DNA and tissue samples • Act as repositories for specimens, samples used in publications Natural History Museum of Denmark

29. What should a virtual biorepository network provide? • High quality (perhaps even certified) identifi- cation of samples • Standardized rating of the accuracy of identification, sampling location and other data to allow evaluation of collection items and data • Coordinated and sustainable access to samples genetic resources Natural History Museum of Denmark

30. What should a virtual biorepository network provide? • Improvement of collection quality (by knowledge transfer, specialisation, disaster management) • Integration of DNA/tissue, specimen, and sequence data networks • Improved safety by exchange of material between DNA and tissue banks • Best practices guidelines and standards for linkage and accessibility of samples – e.g., minimally though high-quality digital images Natural History Museum of Denmark

31. Acknowledgement Financial support by SYNTHESYS and EDIT Grants from the Danish Natural Sciences Research Council Logistical and moral support from the SYNTHESYS Team at the Natural History Museum (London) in particular from Rob Huxley and Gemma Maldar Samantha Mohun (Natural History Museum, London) and Tina Jørgensen (Natural History Museum of Denmark) for compiling the questionnaire Birgit Gemeinholzer and Holger Zetzsche (Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum, Berlin-Dahlem), Isabel Rey (Museo Nacional Ciencias Naturale, Madrid), Gitte Petersen (NHMD) for their efforts! Natural History Museum of Denmark