In the West German Biobank Essen (WBE) of the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen / University Medicine Essen, donated sample material including pseudonymised data is stored and made available for medical research. Blood (and derivatives), urine as well as FFPE and fresh tissue samples are preserved. Since the end of 2016 - based on the funding recommendation of the German Research Foundation (DFG) - the first ultra-low temperature storage facility in North Rhine-Westphalia has been in operation, which enables the fully automated storage of up to 1.2 million samples at minus 80 degrees Celsius.

Profile

Clinical Biobank, Tissue Biobank, Liquid Biobank

Accreditation and certification

Certified according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2008

PD Dr Denise Zwanziger
Head of West German Biobank Essen

biobank@uk-essen.de
Tel: +49 (0) 201 - 723 - 1667

University of Duisburg-Essen
Westdeutsche Biobank Essen

Hufelandstr. 55
45147 Essen

Website

Participation in GBN measures in quality management

EQA schemes Tissue RNA: 2019, 2020, 2023/24 Liquid/DNA: 2020, 2023, 2024/25 PBMC: 2020
Friendly Audit 2019, 2022, 2023, 2025

Key figures

Founded in 2013 920,325 available liquid samples 22,592 number of patients 91 service requests in 2018

Sponsors and partners

German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK)
German Cancer Aid