Interview with Tumorbank @ UZA

Our Quality Manager, Andrea Wutte, presents her interview with Patrick Pauwels (Tumorbank curator), Sofie Goethals (Biobank manager) and Mieke De Wilde (Biobank quality manager) from Tumorbank @ UZA!

Patrick Pauwels obtained his MD certificate at the Catholic University of Leuven in 1985. After a two year fellowship in Internal Medicine, he started a residency in Pathology at the University of Leuven. He then worked as a staff pathologist in Eindhoven until 2002. Thereafter he worked at the Maastricht University Medical Center until 2005. From 2005 until 2009 he was pathologist at the Ghent University Hospital. Since 2009, he works at Antwerp University Medical Center. He obtained his PhD at the University of Leiden in 2004 in the field of molecular pathology. Professor Pauwels is head of the laboratory of molecular pathology and co director of the Center of Oncology Research (CORE) at Antwerp University. He is professor in Molecular Oncopathology at Antwerp University. Since 2009, he is curator of tumorbank@UZA at the Antwerp University Hospital and is a member of the Belgian Virtual Tumorbank steering committee.

Mieke de Wilde studied biology and biochemistry at Antwerp University. She worked for SGS as a medical writer and acquired laboratory experience as an assis-tant in plant physiology. Since 2010, she works for the Biobank of Antwerp University Hospital. Initially, this compromised a range of tasks, from practical lab work and handling sample requests, to the daily management. As the team grew bigger, her main focus became quality management. She is a member of the ISBER proficiency testing advisory board and a ISO/TC276 & CEN/TC233 committee member.

Sofie Goethals holds a Master in Biomedical Sciences and worked from 2007-2013 as a research technician at VIB institute in Antwerp, in the department of Molecular Genetics. Here she mastered many technical skills such as (primary) cell cultures, animal modelling, protein and genetic work which provided her a sound scientific and technical background. In 2014 she joined the Biobank of the University Hospital of Antwerp to work as a biobank manager. Her current focus is project management, process optimization and database maintenance. Together they are part of a strong and growing team of enthusiastic biobankers that are eager to support scientific research.

Read the whole interview here!