The Blood Donor BIOBANK at Analytica 2012

From 17th-20th of April 2012 the BIOBANK participated in the Analytica in Munich. The Analytica, the European benchmark in leading analytical and biotechnology trade shows, taking place every other year, attracted nearly 33.000 visitors from over 110 countries. In addition to the US, Germany developed in recent years to one of the world's strongest location for biotechnology, which is an increasing focus of the Analytica. Especially the Bavarian region has a strong presence in the field. Accordingly, the BIOBANK was represented as part of the “Bayern Innovativ” booth. The visit to the Analytica could be used to make new contacts in the industry and to strengthen existing collaborations.

During the week, the BIOBANK had prominent visitors at the booth, such as Dr. Mark Benecke, the best-known criminologist in the world. Mark Benecke is probably mostly known to the general public by his books and his guest commentaries for the German television series "Medical Detectives" (VOX) and "Autopsy - Mysterious Deaths" (RTL II). After his lecture on DNA analysis methods in forensic sciences, the forensic biologist visited our booth and learned about the activities of the BIOBANK, which he considered to be extremely interesting and useful.

On the last day of the tradeshow we also got a visit from the political field. Markus Blume, political spokesman of the CSU parliamentary group, took the time to learn about the Blood Donor BIOBANK. Since 2008, Markus Blume is a directly elected member of the Bavarian Parliament. One focus of its activities is innovation- and technology; it is therefore not surprising that the politician is very interested in personalized medicine. Hence, he showed to be enthusiastic about the innovative approaches of the BIOBANK in the field of personalized medicine.

Overall, the Analytica was a successful event for the BIOBANK. The interest from visitors and positive feedback from our collaborators encourages us to come back the next time. If you are interested in more information about the Analytica you might want to read the official press release from the Analytica Team:
http://www.analytica.de/link/de/26229827#26229827