The Augsburg Central BioBank at Augsburg University Hospital is located at the Institute of Pathology and Molecular Diagnostics and is supported by the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Augsburg.
The Augsburg Central BioBank was founded in 2017 and with its appointment as a University Hospital on 1 January 2019, research and teaching moved to the centre of everyday clinical practice. Augsburg Central BioBank has set itself the goal of collecting, processing and storing high-quality samples in order to make them available for research projects in pseudonymised form together with the associated data.
The biobank initially started with the collection of cryoasserved tissue samples. The collection spectrum includes solid tumours and CUP (Cancer of Unknown Primary) of the lung, colon and breast (approx. 800-1200 cases/year), tumours of children and adolescents (approx. 50-70 samples/year), rare tumours (100-200 samples/year) and special areas (approx. 150-250 samples/year). However, this spectrum is constantly being expanded in close collaboration with clinical colleagues.
The liquid bank finally went into operation at the end of 2020. The range of samples includes plasma, serum, whole blood, urine, smears, DNA, mononuclear cells and cerebrospinal fluid from tumour patients. Samples are stored both routinely and for specific studies.
In addition, a COVID-19 register (serum, whole blood) was set up in 2020 in cooperation with UNIKA-T, the University Centre for Health Sciences at Augsburg Hospital. At the beginning of 2021, the COVID-19 register was finally transferred in full to Augsburg Central BioBank as part of the integration of UNIKA-T into the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Augsburg.
