German Biobank Alliance

Leipzig Medical Biobank

Population-based Biobank, Clinical Biobank, Tissue Biobank, Liquid Biobank

About us

The LIFE Biobank, established in 2011, stores the biospecimens of the Leipzig Research Centre for Lifestyle Diseases (LIFE). The LIFE Research Centre investigates lifestyle diseases such as depression, diabetes, allergies and cardiovascular diseases. To this end, biosamples and data concerning the health and life circumstances of the Leipzig population are collected and made available to scientists in order to gain insight into scientific questions. In addition to the longitudinal study of an adult cohort and a child cohort, samples and data from patients with heart diseases, obesity, psychiatric illnesses and much more were included in the project. A unique feature here is the excellent phenotyping of the cohorts.

The samples are extracted, processed, and kept for long-term storage following standardised procedures. Hereby the biobank hugely contributes towards the sustainability of the LIFE Research Centre. Thanks to its specific expertise, the LIFE Biobank plays an important role within the German Biobank Alliance in the areas of training, IT and quality management.

The biobank was opened in 2017 for further projects of the University Medicine Leipzig and now functions under the name Leipzig Medical Biobank as the central biobank of the Medical Faculty. Biosamples from patients with selected tumour diseases from the University Cancer Centre Leipzig are now also being preserved in cooperation with the Clinic for Visceral, Transplantation, Thoracic and Vascular Surgery, the Clinic and Polyclinic for Gynecology, 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 samples and data.

These samples and their associated data are available to researchers of the University Hospital and the University of Leipzig and their partners upon request.