Finding Samples for Research Faster
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Different German biobanks can now be searched simultaneously by case and sample, significantly accelerating the agreement of medical research projects in the future. The Fraunhofer Institute for Biomedical Engineering IBMT has developed a project portal for this purpose and integrated it into the German Biobanks Register via an interface jointly designed with TMF. Thus, the register and project portal are accessible with a single registration.
Biobanks are among the most important resources in medical research. They enable the elucidation of the cause and course of diseases at the molecular level and the development of new therapies. However, quickly locating specific human biosamples and their associated data for research and having this information available for the feasibility analysis of planned projects is still a largely unresolved problem. Personnel and financial resources, which should actually benefit research, are still being expended on what is perceived as the trivial task of sample searching. Through the project portal, the connected biobanks can now be searched online. The search runs on anonymized data in compliance with data protection regulations.
Initially, six biobanks participated in the development of the project portal:
- BioPsy, Focus: Neuropsychiatric Diseases (Mannheim)
- ColoNet, Focus: Colorectal Cancer (Lübeck)
- Komp-Net HIV/AIDS, Focus: HIV/AIDS (Bochum)
- Pediatric Diabetes Biobank, Focus: Diabetes in Children (Ulm)
- GHRC / HIV Bank, Focus: HIV/AIDS; Vaccine Development (Saarland)
- PopGen, Focus: Epidemiology / Population Genetics (Kiel)
With the integration of the anonymized data from these very different biobanks, Fraunhofer IBMT is providing a common web-based platform for various disease-specific biobanks and an epidemiological cohort for the first time. This demonstrates the "proof of concept" of a joint biobank platform that can be used simultaneously for all areas of medical research.
The project portal is open to all biobanks listed in the German Biobanks Register for the integration of their data and is continuously developed by Fraunhofer IBMT. Biobank partners are integrated via a database contract that meets all ethical and legal requirements, and in return, they receive the necessary database structure and software from IBMT.
The project portal will be most beneficial when authorized researchers can simultaneously search multiple biobanks of various sponsoring institutions - such as tumor banks at different university hospitals - for a specific research question. "With the project portal, i.e., with the web-based case and sample-specific search across various biobanks, we now have an advanced common infrastructure in Germany, even in international comparison," explains Prof. Jens Habermann, coordinator of the North German Tumor Bank Colorectal Cancer (ColoNet), the interest of German biobanks in the new platform.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research funded the establishment of the project portal and the German Biobanks Register.
Press Contact
Dr. Christina Schröder (Fraunhofer IBMT)
Phone: +49 (0) 331 / 58187-227
E-mail: christina.schroeder@ibmt.fraunhofer.de
About Fraunhofer IBMT
As the carrier of the central biobank infrastructures CRIP and P2B2 and as an internationally leading technology developer for the establishment of intelligent biobank systems and the cryopreservation of biological materials, Fraunhofer IBMT is a partner and service provider for numerous biobanks and the entire human-probe-based biomedical research.
About the TMF
The TMF - Technology and Methods Platform for Networked Medical Research e.V. is Germany's umbrella organization for medical networked research. Among other things, TMF operates the German Biobanks Register, which it established with funding from the BMBF.
Participating Biobanks (Selection)
