At the beginnig of July, the Biobank for Cancer and Rare Diseases at JLF UK in Martin (Jessenius Faculty of Medicine in Martin Comenius University) welcomed a delegation of experts from the Czech National Node BBMRI.cz, led by its director, Roman Hrstka.
The visit took place in the context of preparations for the establishment of JLF UK as the Slovak national node under the leadership of Zuzana Danková, director of the biobank. The Czech team shared valuable insights from more than 20 years of experience in biobanking and provided recommendations that can accelerate and streamline the process of building and managing the Slovak Node of BBMRI sk as a part of european konsotium BBMRI-ERIC.
BBMRI-ERIC is the most important international consortium in the field of biobanking. The Slovak Republic became a full member in June 2025, thanks in part to the long-standing activities and efforts of JLF UK in Martin. The creation of the BBMRI-ERIC national node in Slovakia is a strategic step that will ensure access for Slovak and foreign researchers to high-quality biological samples and enable Slovakia's full participation in European research structures and prestigious projects.
The visit by representatives of BBMRI.cz was extremely beneficial, as biobanking is now an integral part of modern biomedical research, innovation, the development of personalized medicine, and the development of new drugs. The established cooperation will thus contribute significantly to the development of biobanking infrastructure in Slovakia.
As part of this collaboration, educational seminars, educational materials, excursions, and popular science articles are planned with the aim of raising awareness about biobanks and biobanking not only among cancer patients but also among the general public.
The prestigious Forbes magazine published an interesting article about a new method of early detection of pancreatic cancer, developed by Prof. Holčapek's team from the University of Pardubice, and the start-up Lipidica took this method under its wing. The company has now been granted a US patent.
