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Biobank

A prerequisite for psychiatric genetic research is the availability of a comprehensive collection of biomaterials. The biobank - as one of the units of the CIPP core facility - manages Germany’s largest collection of biomaterial from psychiatric patients, their relatives and controls established by the Department of Genetic Epidemiology in Psychiatry. It is one of the core biobanks of the BMBF-funded Research Net for Psychiatric Diseases and closely collaborates with the Medicine Informatics Initiative at the UMM with respect to standard operating procedures (SOPs) and terms of use to harmonize standards and processes.

The Biobank also actively participate in the biobanking group of the “Technology and Methods Platform for networked medical research” (TMF) which is the umbrella organization for collaborative medical research in Germany. The TMF drives forward the interdisciplinary exchange and cooperation to jointly identify and solve the organizational, legal-ethical and technological problems of modern medical research. The aim of these activities is to establish a comprehensive, modern, and flexible biobanking facility to foster cross-national collaborations for multi-omics analyses in psychiatric diseases across the entire life span.

State-of-the art biobanking of diverse biomaterial (e.g. blood, saliva, brain tissue, stool and placenta) is conducted according to strict quality standards (ISO 9001 certification in 2021), data protection regulations and ethical standards. As a full service unit, the biobank specializes in the acquisition of biomaterial from complex, longitudinal studies.

The team of experts provides guidance concerning biomaterial selection, and the optimal time points for biomaterial collection. Biomaterials are processed partly automated with a liquid handling system. All samples are automatically registered in the laboratory information management system (CentraXX, Kairos GmbH), in which all further processing steps are continuously documented. Storage conditions are continuously controlled and documented. The biobank is conveniently located in close proximity to the study center and the other CiPP modalities.