BBMRI ELSI Dialogues Webinar – The role of biobanks in realizing the One Health approach

The One Health approach considers the health of humans, animals and the environment as interconnected. This integrated perspective is especially important for tackling emerging zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, food safety risks, environmental pollution and global health security. However, One Health operates within regulatory frameworks that differ across sectors, creating fragmented governance structures and making legal and regulatory compliance difficult to navigate.

Biobanking across human and non-human domains could play a key role in enabling the One Health approach by supporting the collection, storage and sharing of samples and data for surveillance, research, and policymaking. At the same time, it raises ethical, legal, and operational challenges that need to be addressed.

This webinar will open with a short introduction by Josephine Uldry (Swiss Biobanking), outlining the means for the biobanking community to support a One Health approach in research. Prof. Jakob Zinsstag (Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute), a pioneer of the One Health concept, will share insights from his extensive field experience in implementing this approach in diverse contexts and communities, illustrating how One Health approaches can improve epidemiology and public health policy in practice. Dr Adam Strobeyko (Swiss Biobanking and Global Health Centre, Geneva Graduate Institute) will discuss the legal dimensions of pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response the efforts to integrate One Health into international frameworks and practical implications for biobanks.

Moderator: Mónica Cano Abadía