European Union ABS User Networking Event

On Monday, June 14, 2021, the Leibniz Institute DSMZ/German Nagoya Protocol HuB will be hosting an online EU ABS Networking Event. This meeting will be organized together with the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC), the Union for Ethical BioTrade, ABS-int, the Dutch ABS National Focal Point (hosted by Wageningen University and Research) and the Natural History Museum London.

Our colleague and EBB partner Anne Emmanuelle Kervella, from CNRS and Station Biologique de Roscoff, will participate in this event. The event´s main objective will be to showcase the efforts made in the European Union to support users of genetic resources in their respective sectors or regions with access and benefit-sharing (ABS) and compliance requirements. It will be divided into two parts: one to find out what has already been done and the other to find out what still needs to be done.

You can check out the draft agenda here and you can register online here.

Seminar on the utilization of genetic resources within the framework of the Nagoya Protocol and the regulations for its implementation

Next May 28, 2021, it will be organized a seminar on the utilization of genetic resources within the framework of the Nagoya Protocol and the regulations for its implementation. This event is co-organized by the Spanish Bank of Algae of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, an entity managed by the Fundación Canaria Parque Científico Tecnológico, together with the Society for the Economic Promotion of Gran Canaria (SPEGC), the TFC Herbarium (SEGAI) of the University of La Laguna Tenerife (ULL), the Museum of Natural Sciences of Tenerife (MUNA), the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research (ICIA), the Canarian Botanical Garden ‘Viera y Clavijo’-CSIC Associated Unit, Cabildo de Gran Canaria and the Herbarium of Marine Sciences (BCM-ULPGC).

This initiative´s objective is linked to the promotion of cooperative relationships between companies and entities that are part of the blue biotechnology platform. Specifically, this seminar aims to provide a better understanding of the Nagoya Protocol and the European and Spanish Access Benefits Sharing regulations, informing on when it is applied and resolving the doubts that academia and industrial sectors may have about its application.

The day will be divided into a first block dedicated to the Nagoya Protocol and the legislation on access and utilization of genetic resources in research and industry, where you can learn more about its application and its application in the Canary Islands. The second block will focus on deepening the knowledge of the Biological Collections of the Canary Islands, as agents of ex-situ conservation of biodiversity and suppliers of genetic resources to the industry. You can check here the agenda and other information of the event.

The event will be free of charge and broadcasted via zoom. Registration is required and can be done here.

Workshop on reproductive biotechnology and cryobanking in aquatic species

On April 2021, from 7th to 9th, the UAlg team organized a workshop entitled “Workshop on reproductive biotechnology and cryobanking in aquatic species”. It was hold in Faro, Portugal, where several ponents from diverse institutions gave very interesting lectures about reproductive and cryopreservation techniques via zoom platform. Dr. Elsa Cabrita and her team were in charge of moderating the event and also conducted the practical sessions.

Among the invited speakers there were several researchers involved in EBB. Dr. Ibon Cancio, from PiE-UPV/EHU, gave a talk entitled “Biobanking and marine culture collections: access and benefit sharing obligations in the utilisation of genetic resources”. In it he explained the main aspects of ABS regulations and how these can affect access to marine biological resources. And, Dr. Estefanía Paredes, from the CIM-UVigo, gave a talk entitled “Cryopreservation in molluscs & echinoderms”, in which she explained the main aspects of the conservation of these organisms. In addition, Dr. Paredes presented the “Video-Session V: Laser techniques for thawing embryos”, where the latest techniques for the recovery of frozen samples were shown in a visual way.

Apart from this, the day 9th was the practical training day of the workshop where a total of 20 people attended these training classes, which consisted on a visit to zebrafish facilities, sperm collection from seabream and Portuguese oyster, and cryopreservation of these samples using several methods. Besides, testicular dissection and spermatogonia collection were performed including cryopreservation of these cells for conducting transplantations in the future.

Overall, this workshop helped to disseminate some of main aspects of the project and contributed to the capitalization of the project.