Bochum - The Institute for Prevention and Occupational Medicine (IPA) of the German Social Accident Insurance, Institute of the Ruhr University Bochum, will archive biological samples from occupationally exposed persons as well as associated data on exposure and occupational history in standardized and quality-assured manner.
More than two million biosamples can be stored there in liquid nitrogen at temperatures as low as minus 185 degrees Celsius from summer 2019. So far, biomaterial collections have been stored and managed in decentralized manner as part of research projects. With the new system, this should be done centrally in the future according to modern security and quality standards.
“The national and international The importance of the IPA-Biobank lies in its special focus on occupational health issues, ”explained Thomas Brüning, Director of the IPA. Biobanks are indispensable for effective and efficient research into the causes of work-related health hazards and work-related diseases. "We are investing here in the future for safety and health in the workplace," he emphasized.
In order for samples and data to be safe and also available for future scientific questions, sophisticated data protection concept is required. Antje Müller and other scientists at the IPA developed this and presented it in the journal Biopreservation and Biobanking (2019; doi:).
It provides, among other things, that every biobank sample is marked exclusively with pure random numbers in the form of barcodes. "The donating person receives biobank's own pseudonym in order to enable request for information at any time or to be able to transmit any incidental findings directly to them," said Thomas Behrens, head of the biobank.
According to Ruhr University Bochum, the open and Conversion work for the cryogenic storage has already started. In the coming years, the German Social Accident Insurance will invest another eight million euros in building up the biobank.
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