12.01.2021

Biobanks play an important role in biomedical research: they provide human biosamples of high and comparable quality as well as the associated data.ödata quickly available.

Since the German Biobank Node (GBN) was founded in 2017, a powerful network of 20 academic partner biobanks has emerged under its aegis: the German Biobank Alliance (GBA), whose deputy coordinator is Prof. Dr. Dr. Thomas Illig.

Coordinated by the GBN, the GBA partner biobanks, which also includes the Hannover Unified Biobank (HUB) as the central biobank of the MHH, harmonize their quality management and network via a common IT infrastructure. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) föThe Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is now funding the GBN's work for a further three years with around 3.5 million euros.

Blood, tissue samples, isolated cells or extracted DNA: around 22 million human biosamples are stored in the biobanks of the German Biobank Alliance (GBA) and new ones are constantly being added. The biobanks process these samples and make them available for basic research, for all phases of drug and therapy development and for the development and testing of diagnostics. The collections provide a basis for numerous research disciplines - biobanks also play a central role in Covid-19 research.

Quality and access to biosamples are crucial

The quality of biosamples and their associated data is of the utmost importance for reliable research results. This is why the GBN has established common quality standards within the Biobank Alliance and provides further training for biobank employees. With the Sample Locator (samplelocator.bbmri.de), the GBN has also created an online tool that allows users to search for samples and data across numerous biobanks from a central location.

Cooperation with research infrastructures

The GBN and the Medical Informatics Initiative (MII), also funded by the BMBF, are planning close cooperation in the coming years. In a joint project, the partners will bring the IT structures of GBN and MII closer together and create a uniform, nationwide, data protection-compliant platform that stores and provides research data sets. These will include clinical data, image data and data on biosamples and combine them in a multicentre, patient-related and pseudonymized manner. The GBN also works together with the biobank organization BBMRI-ERIC at European level.