BIOINN

Gathering genetic and kinship information on breeding population for more than 40 years

The Biotech Cluster Initiative BIOINN has a particular emphasis in livestock and plant genetics. Livestock and plant breeding has long cultural traditions in the inland regions of central Norway, which is why the Hamar region enjoys a high level of competence in these fields.

The idea behind the Cluster BIOINN started about 15 years ago. The cluster contains leading trades in animal breeding and conversion. There are also related trades in plant breeding that work with grain, herbs, fruit, forest trees and vegetables. The cluster also possesses a unique breeding material from livestock, namely a Biobank. There is great demand for this material in many parts of the world, prompted by the unique breeding programme and the livestock’s documented good health and high fertility rates.

Today, biotechnology is one of the most important professional priority areas in the Hamar region. The targeted aim on applied and industry-focused biotechnology in the Hamar region is agreed on by politicians, the professional market participants and the agent network. A specific example of this is that some of the participants moved together under the same roof in August 2005, creating a dedicated BioHouse, for which Hamar Municipality has been a great contributor towards realisation.

The realisation of “BioHus” is a result of a systematic process over many years, where different disciplines connected to Biotech-related activities have been brought together – ranging from private industry and trade, through to the breeding organisations and Hedmark University College.

BIOINN, the cluster facilitator overseeing different cluster-enhancing cooperation projects between market participants in biotechnology, has been financed with public and private money.

The main focus of BIOINN is entrepreneurship, innovation, commercialisation and IP, while at the same time strengthening the position in the core areas of the plant and animal-breeding organisations as well as R&D.

BioBank Ltd, Norway

History
BioBank Ltd is a Norwegian animal biobank for livestock, pets, fish and plants. BioBank was established in 2005, owned by the three main breeding companies of Norway – Norsvin [pigs], BioKapital/ Geno [cattle] and AquaGen [Atlantic salmon].

Preserving for the future
By means of selective breeding and R&D, the owners have been gathering genetic and kinship information on their breeding populations for more than 40 years. All this information is integrated into the repository of BioBank and its databases as >160 000 individual samples.

In a professional manner, BioBank enables potential for existing and future biotechnology to be optimally explored through this biological material. BioBank preserves genetic material from early selection steps (embryo, semen, egg cells, seed), and thereby genetic variants that otherwise might be gone after selection.

To make information easily accessible to users, BioBank uses the most efficient database platforms available. This includes overviews of all samples registered, analyses of selected samples and the possibility to connect data to other relevant databases on request.

We provide the following services

BioBank operates a secure and robust freezing storage system.
BioBank operates and develops databases which combine information from individual samples for different analyses, and sets up interfaces for processing samples and easy client information imports.
BioBank assists efficient and secure genetic analyses and genetic traceability.
BioBank performs all Norwegian pedigree control for pigs, meat and dairy cattle, including DNA certificates to ISAG standards.
BioBank performs a secure DNA extraction with dispatches to subcontractors or owners.
Furthermore, BioBank offers routine sampling, advanced sampling and project design.

Quality control
BioBank operates a QM system according to ISO9001 and ISO17025.

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