<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As EMBL\u2019s 50th Anniversary<\/a> year draws to a close, we wanted to highlight another milestone which should not be overlooked in this bumper year of celebration<\/a>, as 2024 also marks ten years since the Bioethics Internal Advisory Committee (or BIAC) officially came into being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While EMBL has always included a degree of ethical oversight in its research, the BIAC \u2013 created specifically to review and assess projects which propose to utilise human material or any data arising thereof \u2013 was transformational in its approach to ethics compliance. The BIAC was established to ensure that research on relevant materials conducted at EMBL appropriately consider relevant biosafety and bioethical issues, and to provide advice as needed to the Director General.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The committee is composed of a wide variety of experts from within and outside of EMBL, and it has grown from a handful of members in 2014, to over 30 in its current form. The BIAC must always include at least one member whose primary expertise lies in the biological and\/or biomedical sciences, one member whose primary expertise lies in the Ethical, Legal, and Social Issues (ELSI) area, and one member who is not otherwise affiliated with the Laboratory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the spirit of the season, the Bioethics Services Team wanted to take the opportunity to showcase the BIAC past, present, and (possible!) future by catching up with Matthias Hentze (the first BIAC Chair), Jan Korbel (the current BIAC Chair), and Joanne Doleman (an external member who is also a current Sub-Committee Chair).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Recalling how he first became part of the BIAC, Matthias told us, “I was involved in the establishment of BIAC at EMBL (also related to being a Medical Doctor by training), the initial drafting of IP53 (the Internal Policy dictating the use of Human Biological Material), and I was also the first BIAC Chair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new committee \u201cneeded a lot of groundwork and to create awareness\u201d he said It was soon clear the consideration of the \u201cethical (and legal dimensions) could be improved,\u201d and as a committee they \u201cdug quite deeply into each application, with detailed discussion and follow-up. The volume was under 20 applications a year.\u201d Matthias also highlighted that one of the biggest achievements of the BIAC \u201chas been the definition and actual implementation of informed consent,\u201d which impacts the kind of material that EMBL research can use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When considering his time as BIAC Chair during the COVID years, Jan praised the \u201centirely voluntary membership that worked tirelessly around the clock\u201d to scrutinise not only business-as-usual applications that use human samples and data \u2013 which had grown to nearly 50 applications per year at that point \u2013 but also additional projects with a COVID-specific focus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI still vividly recall how Halldor Stefansson and I reviewed 20 applications for EMBL research about COVID \u2013 literally overnight \u2013 to allow the site to react to the pandemic,\u2019 he said. \u201cBack then, we needed to radically adapt our processes and ways of working, and this is how the Bioethics Services function as we have it now was born.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jan, who is also Scientific Co-Chair of EMBL\u2019s Bioethics Services with Alexander Aulehla, said that ethics got \u201cso entirely embedded in the EMBL culture that it deserved a dedicated team to deliver it effectively.\u201d The Bioethics Services team, which acts as gatekeeper for research ethics issues at EMBL, also includes animal, environmental, and technological ethics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But what of the future of EMBL\u2019s BIAC, and what issues will they be discussing in 2034? The answer \u201cseems easy,\u201d Matthias said. \u201cProbably a fair amount will revolve around responsible data use in an age when AI has developed much further. Additionally, another set of questions may arise from increased possibilities to manipulate human life at will \u2013 intended as enhancements or improvements \u2013 but likely with profound ethical implications.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Joanne Doleman, Associate Head of Research Governance at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and one of BIAC\u2019s external Sub-Committee Chairs, agreed with this vision of the future. \u201cThe application of individual genetics to personalised therapeutics will be an interesting area of development, and the application of AI or machine learning to analyse data and research results will be commonplace by then, I am sure!\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n When asked what benefits she brings to the BIAC as an external member, Joanne said that \u201cmy input to the BIAC has always focussed on the human materials and donor consent as that is my area of expertise.\u201d This arm\u2019s-length approach has also allowed her to reflect on the benefits the BIAC now brings to the EMBL community. \u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed being party to continual improvement processes within BIAC,\u201d she said. \u201cThe new portal and efficiencies of review and application must have certainly benefitted researchers, allowing transparency of information-sharing between the BIAC and EMBL.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BIAC\u2019s successful input would simply not have been possible without the hard work and dedication of its subcommittee chairs (currently Halldor Stefansson, Joanne Doleman, Thomas Keane, and Michael Zimmermann) and the numerous members who all work together with a collective aim of facilitating ethically driven research at EMBL.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jan conveyed his appreciation as well. \u201cThanks to all members of the EMBL family and the numerous collaborators who have supported BIAC so effectively over the years, ensuring that EMBL scientists can partake in research with human samples in a responsible and ethical way.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n And from the Bioethics Services team, we say \u2018thank you\u2019 as well. Here\u2019s to the next decade of the BIAC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lucia Schmitz (n\u00e9e von Bredow), Ethics Lead, is part of Bioethics Services that provides the Secretariat for the BIAC<\/a> and the EEB<\/a> (EMBL Ethics Board).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As EMBL\u2019s 50th Anniversary year draws to a close, we wanted to highlight another milestone which should not be overlooked in this bumper year of celebration, as 2024 also marks ten years since the Bioethics Internal Advisory Committee (or BIAC) officially came into being. While EMBL has always…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"embl_taxonomy":[],"class_list":["post-9053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"acf":[],"embl_taxonomy_terms":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.svg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9053"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9077,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9053\/revisions\/9077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9053"},{"taxonomy":"embl_taxonomy","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.embl.org\/about\/info\/bioethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/embl_taxonomy?post=9053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}