ISBER Elections Biosketch President-Elect (May 2015-May 2016)

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ISBER Elections Biosketch President-Elect (May 2015-May 2016) ISBER Elections Biosketch President-Elect (May 2015-May 2016) First Name Last Name Roman Siddiqui Degree (if applicable) Dr. rer. nat. Current Position and Institution Since 2010, Mr. Siddiqui is working as a Senior Scientific Consultant at TMF, in Berlin (Germany). He is in charge of the TMF-Working Groups “Biobanking” and “Molecular Medicine”, respectively. Furthermore, he represents the responsible contact person for the German Biobank Registry (www.biobanken.de), being operated by TMF. TMF – Technology, Methods, and Infrastructure for Networked Medical Research e. V., is a state-funded non-profit umbrella organization currently counting more than 80 academic medical research networks in Germany among its members. The different TMF working groups have been geared to identify and solve organizational, legal, ethical and technological roadblocks with the objective of improving the infrastructural framework of clinical, epidemiological and translational research in the country (www.tmf- ev.de). The TMF-Biobanking Working Group is one of the most efficient and well-respected body of its kind in Germany (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/WorkingGroups/Biobankingworkinggroup.aspx). Education and Experience After initially studying Law and Biology at the University of Erlangen (Germany), he focused his studies on Microbiology, Biochemistry and Organic Chemistry at the University of Göttingen (Germany). Mr. Siddiqui earned his Ph.D. at the Institute of Microbiology, University of Göttingen, in 1989. He acquired extensive experience for undergraduate and graduate teaching in microbiology as a scientific assistant at the microbiology departments of the Free University and the Humboldt-University in Berlin (Germany), from 1990 to 2000. His research focus was the molecular biology and biochemistry of bacterial heavy metal resistance and the anaerobic lifestyle in bacteria with alternative electron acceptors. Another interest was the export of fully folded redox proteins across the cytoplasmic membrane, via the so-called twin-arginine-translocase pathway. Upon moving to the Department of Genome Analysis at the Leibniz-Institute for Age Research e. V. (2001) in Jena (Germany), Mr. Siddiqui gained deep insight into human genetics and took part in the German contribution within the frame of the international efforts to complete the human genome sequencing project (German Human Genome Project; DHGPII). In the post genome era, he got trained in high-throughput-technologies for GWAS-, SNP- and CNV-analysis, and has applied biostatistics, systems biology, biomarker research, and lately also the avenue of next generation sequencing technologies for disease-oriented genome research (e. g., National Genome Research Network; NGFN-II). Scientific focus was the human innate immunity against bacterial and viral infections. Other model studies dealt with genetic and systems biology approaches to understand cell wall-less bacterial mutants. During NGFN-II, he pursued an “Exploratory Research-Project” on genomic variability of host factors in the AIDS macaque model. Translational studies on susceptibility to HIV-infection in humans, based on previous findings in the experimental monkey model of AIDS, were completed at the German Primate Center (DPZ) in Göttingen (Germany), until beginning of 2010. This work was done in a very fruitful collaboration with the Center for Human Genome Variation, Duke University, North Carolina, USA. In 2010, Mr. Siddiqui joined TMF in Berlin (Germany) in order to continue and further intensify the successful work of the TMF-Biobanking Platform. Biobanking Interests Established in 2004, the Biobanking Working Group of TMF has surveyed the pertinent legal regulations of biobanking, developed specimen transfer contracts, quality assurance checklists and data protection concepts, and proposed informed consent declarations and generic guidelines for the establishment, operation and management of biobanks. From 2010 to 2012, TMF has set up a central registry for biobanks funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), thereby allowing a first time access to information on medically relevant biobanks in Germany. TMF also supports the BMBF-funded National Biobanking Initiative destined to overcome the fragmentation of the national biobanking landscape and to create centralized biobank infrastructures. TMF provides a communication platform to the initiative and offers workshops as well as consulting services (e. g. on data protection issues). For the advancement of biobanking in Germany, TMF has launched the Annual National Biobanking Symposium in 2012. This symposium will continue to be held regularly in December each year, and symposium-contributions will be published regularly as books, citable by ISBN. To also promote international activities, TMF has become a member of ESBB and especially of the leading Biobanking Society in the world, ISBER. It supports the BMBF-project of a central contact and exchange point for the German biobank community as the German Biobank Node for BBMRI. TMF is active and represented also in international efforts of standardization in biobanking (ISO/TC 276 Biotechnology). Professional Activities (ISBER and other) ISBER Working Groups Setting up biobanks in network projects is becoming increasingly international. The TMF-Biobanking Working Group has therefore begun to consider the issue from an European / International perspective. As of 2014, the TMF and ISBER have signed a mutual Associate Agreement for the promotion of biobanking at all levels on a global scale. Professional Societies and Volunteer Organizations related to biobanking since 2014 Member of German experts at DIN (ISO/TC 276 Biotechnology) since 2013 ISBER since 2012 ESBB since 2008 Working group for Gene-Diagnostics e.V. (www.agdev.de) 1988 - 2013 Association for General and Applied Microbiology – VAAM (www.vaam.de) Organizer or co-organizer of meetings/conferences: rd 2014 3 National Biobank Symposium (www.tmf-ev.de/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1657.aspx) nd 2013 2 National Biobanking Symposium (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1443.aspx) st 2012 1 National Biobank Symposium (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1249.aspx) 2011 Need for Regulation in Research with Human Biobanks – co-organized with the German Ethics Council (www.tmf- ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/931.aspx) 2011 Kick Off - National Biobank-Initiative (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/932.aspx) Since 2010, ~ five times a year, additional full one-day-meetings were organized for the TMF-Biobanking Working Group (currently totaling 27) - including European On-Site-Visits of important biobanks: - 2013 - Biobanks in Iceland (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1344.aspx) - 2012 - UK Biobank (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1169.aspx) - 2011 - Biobank Karolinska Institutet (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1023.aspx) - 2011 - IBBL Luxembourg (www.tmf-ev.de/Arbeitsgruppen_Foren/AGBMB/Dokumente.aspx) - 2010 - Estonian Biobank (www.tmf-ev.de/EnglishSite/News/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/893.aspx) Editorial Boards Not applicable Other Not applicable .
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