Over 14 million euros for funding the networking of German biobanks
Medical IT experts involved in nationwide project
As of 1 May 2017, eleven German biobank sites will be joining forces in the German Biobank Alliance (GBA), paving the way for a national and Europe-wide exchange of data and bio-samples between biobanks. The Chair of Medical Informatics is one of the IT centers of expertise participating in the network. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the biobank alliance until 2020 with 14.4 million euros.
Networked, state-of-the-art biobanks play an essential role in developing innovative diagnostic techniques and therapies for the treatment of patients.
explains GBA co-ordinator Prof. Dr. M. Hummel. Biobanks collect and store blood, tissues and other bodily material, and make them available to the biomedical research community.
As a result, important sample and data archives are created for the study of diseases.
Biobanks are an essential platform for biomedical research
Prof. Dr. H.-U. Prokosch of the Chair of Medical Informatics and Director of the IT Center of Expertise at FAU explains:
To enable researchers in future to search biobanks for samples and data and build cross-biobank collections for research projects, the IT structures used by biobanks need to be standardized.
Other harmonization processes for exchanging data and ensuring the quality of the biomaterials are necessary, but the ethical and legal aspects also need to be discussed and aligned. This is the only way in which biomaterials and the associated data can be brought together and used for research across biobanks and international borders.
Biobanks accelerate the development of new methods of diagnosis and treatment
Prof. Dr. M. Hummel further explain:
The effort is extremely worthwhile because networked biobanks with high quality samples are the basis for productive and reproducible medical research.
The quality and availability of the biomaterials and the associated data are of crucial importance. Particularly in the light of personalized precision medicine, the networking of biobanks and the harmonization of data formats and processes is essential for carrying out meaningful and comparable analyses. Prof. Dr. M. Hummel says:
The German Biobank Alliance is an excellent opportunity for the biobank community in Germany. It will contribute to streamlining biomedical research in the long term and strengthen the position of Germany in the European and international research community.
About the German Biobank Alliance
The German Biobank Alliance was founded in 2017 by the German Biobank Node (GBN). Funded by the Federal BMBF, the GBN sees itself as a central co-operation platform for the German biobank community. As part of GBN, eleven BMBF-funded biobanks and two IT development centers in the German Biobank Alliance (GBA) will collaborate to make existing biomaterials from various biobanks available for biomedical research on a Europe-wide basis.
Eleven German biobanks have joined forces in the German Biobank Alliance (GBA). Together they hold almost 14 million biosamples that are available for research. They are working to ensure that by 2020 these samples and data will be able to be exchanged between biobanks in Germany and across Europe. This will be achieved by means of the creation of shared IT infrastructures, the implementation of quality standards and the harmonization of legal and ethical standards.
More information
Prof. Dr. H.-U. Prokosch
Phone: +49 9131 85 26720