Evaluation of Legislation and Related Guidelines on the Procurement, Storage and Transfer of Human Tissues and Cells in the European Union–an Evidence-Based Impact Analysis (TISS.EU)

The acronym Tiss.EU stands for „Evaluation of Legislation and Related Guidelines on the Procurement, Storage and Transfer of Human Tissues and Cells in the European Union - an Evidence-Based Impact Analysis.” The project, funded by the European Commission as part of the 7th Framework Programme, runs from March 2008 to early 2011 and addresses questions of ethical and legal regulation in relation to research using human tissue. Tiss.EU is made up of four parts, the ethical and legal aspects of which are going to be looked at by the project partners: first, procurement, storage and transfer of tissue and cells for research; second, rights and entitlements to tissue and cells; third, anonymization and pseudonymization to protect privacy rights; and, finally, research using biobanks.

For more information about the project please consult the website: www.tisseu.uni-hannover.de

In the framework of TissEU project CELAB organized and hosted the Second International Workshop of the Tiss.EU Project in Budapest on April 6–8, 2009 with the title Anonymization and Pseudonymization as Means of Privacy Protection made a major contribution to one of the four Focal Themes of the Tiss.EU project (Focal Theme C) by addressing questions of anonymization and pseudonymization in privacy protection in relatively unexplored jurisdictions of Central and Eastern Europe, such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Romania. Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the workshop’s subject, invited speakers represented a wide range of disciplines, such as law, medicine, philosophy and information technology.