The biosamples from the Leipzig Research Centre for Civilisation Diseases (LIFE) are stored in the LIFE Biobank, which was founded in 2011. The LIFE research centre investigates diseases of civilisation such as depression, diabetes, allergies and cardiovascular diseases. To this end, biosamples and data on the health and living conditions of the Leipzig population are collected and made available to scientists to answer scientific questions. In addition to an adult cohort and a longitudinally analysed cohort of children, samples and data from patients with heart disease, obesity, psychiatric illnesses and more were also included in the project. A special feature is the excellent phenotyping of the cohorts.
The samples are taken, processed, stored and kept for the long term in a standardised manner. The biobank thus makes an important contribution to the sustainability of the LIFE Research Centre. Thanks to its proven expertise in the areas of training, IT and quality management, the LIFE Biobank can make an important contribution to the German Biobank Alliance.
The biobank was also opened up to other projects at Leipzig University Medicine in 2017 and now functions as the central biobank of the Faculty of Medicine under the name Leipzig Medical Biobank. Biosamples from patients with selected tumour diseases from the Leipzig University Cancer Centre are now also being preserved in cooperation with the Clinic for Visceral, Transplantation, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, the Clinic and Polyclinic for Gynaecology, the Institute of Pathology and the Institute of Laboratory Medicine. Further clinics are to be added in the coming months. The main focus of these collections is on the quality and safety of the samples and data.
These samples and their associated data are available to researchers at the University Hospital and Leipzig University and their partners on request.
Accreditation and certification
Institute of Laboratory Medicine, Clinical Chemistry and Molecular Diagnostics is accredited according to DIN EN ISO 17025, 15189
