Julie Neubauer

Title

EBiSC – The Euro­pean Bank for iPS Cells — a joint endeav­our to accel­er­ate and stan­dard­ise iPS research 

Abstract

Since their intro­duc­tion in 2007, induced pluripo­tent stem cells (iPSCs) have trans­formed bio­med­ical research by offer­ing unprece­dent­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties for in vit­ro dis­ease mod­el­ling, drug dis­cov­ery, and per­son­alised med­i­cine using phys­i­o­log­i­cal­ly rel­e­vant human cell mod­els. In response to the grow­ing demand for stan­dard­ised iPSC resources, the Euro­pean Bank for Induced Pluripo­tent Stem Cells (EBiSC) was estab­lished in 2014. 

EBiSC serves as a cen­tral­ized plat­form and infra­struc­ture for the acqui­si­tion, stor­age, and dis­sem­i­na­tion of iPSCs and asso­ci­at­ed data, aim­ing to enhance reusabil­i­ty and repro­ducibil­i­ty in iPSC research endeav­ours. The pri­ma­ry objec­tive of EBiSC is to facil­i­tate the shar­ing of iPSCs derived from donat­ed sam­ples across diverse dis­ease con­texts. By pro­vid­ing access to a com­pre­hen­sive col­lec­tion of iPSC lines along with asso­ci­at­ed pro­to­cols, train­ing mate­ri­als, and open­ly acces­si­ble datasets, EBiSC enables iPSC research with­in both non-prof­it and com­mer­cial organisations. 

This ini­tia­tive was ini­ti­at­ed under two fund­ed project phas­es as pub­lic-pri­vate part­ner­ships, receiv­ing sup­port from the Inno­v­a­tive Med­i­cines Ini­tia­tive and the Euro­pean Fed­er­a­tion of Phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal Indus­tries and Asso­ci­a­tions (EFPIA). To enable long-term sus­tain­abil­i­ty, it has imple­ment­ed a mod­el that ensures con­tin­ued avail­abil­i­ty and acces­si­bil­i­ty of iPSC resources. A cor­ner­stone of EBiS­C’s approach is its col­lab­o­ra­tive biobank­ing mod­el by being joint­ly sup­port­ed by two not-for-prof­it research organ­i­sa­tions: Fraun­hofer UK and Fraun­hofer IBMT. 

By shar­ing lessons learned and best prac­tices in iPSC col­lec­tion, char­ac­ter­i­sa­tion, and dis­tri­b­u­tion, EBiSC aims to enhance the usabil­i­ty and impact of iPSC resources while main­tain­ing rig­or­ous stan­dards for qual­i­ty con­trol, eth­i­cal gov­er­nance, and data man­age­ment. In con­clu­sion, EBiSC pro­vides a vital infra­struc­ture for the stan­dard­ized acqui­si­tion and shar­ing of iPSC resources across Europe and beyond. Through its col­lab­o­ra­tive efforts, EBiSC seeks to advance sci­en­tif­ic knowl­edge, accel­er­ate under­stand­ing of dis­ease, and ulti­mate­ly improve patient out­comes, there­by ben­e­fit­ing researchers, patients, and the broad­er sci­en­tif­ic com­mu­ni­ty alike. 

Biog­ra­phy

Julie Neubauer is the CEO of the Fraun­hofer Cen­ter for Stem Cell Process Engi­neer­ing and Head of Depart­ment at the Fraun­hofer Insti­tute for Bio­med­ical Engi­neer­ing (IBMT) in Würzburg, Ger­many. With over 15 years of expe­ri­ence at Fraun­hofer, she leads research ini­tia­tives focused on the devel­op­ment and opti­miza­tion of scal­able bio­process­es for stem cell man­u­fac­tur­ing. Her exper­tise spans bio­process engi­neer­ing, automa­tion, biobank­ing and trans­la­tion­al research, aim­ing to bridge the gap between lab­o­ra­to­ry dis­cov­er­ies and indus­tri­al appli­ca­tions in regen­er­a­tive med­i­cine and cell-based therapies.