Biobank Infrastructure
The introduction of the Broad Consent at University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein (UKSH) has enabled a comprehensive collection of biomaterials for research purposes. To achieve this, residual biomaterials from routine diagnostics are processed and frozen. In 2017, the Healthcare-embedded Biobank (HEB) was established at the Institute of Clinical Chemistry in collaboration with the Institute of Clinical Molecular Biology to store these biomaterials appropriately and make them available for research. The HEB aims to collect biomaterials across the UKSH supporting various projects for medical research.
The Institute of Clinical Chemistry is responsible for routine diagnostics in the daily clinical setting, processing around 3,500 samples for treatments at the Kiel campus in the central laboratory. Residual biomaterials from patients who have agreed to the Broad Consent are forwarded from the central laboratory to the biobank in a highly automated manner. The HEB processes these residual materials using a robot and freezes smaller portions, which are only identified by a barcode. By integrating the biobank into routine clinical procedures, not only the biomaterial information but also the patients' clinical data are accessible via the Medical Data Integration Center (MeDIC). If a research project requires samples from patients with a specific medical condition, the HEB can retrieve them according to the selection criteria. The transfer of biobanking samples to research groups is controlled by an independent committee assessing the project as ethically and data protection-compliant as well as scientifically meaningful.
UKSH Cohort
The UKSH Cohort, which is part of the HEB, was initiated to investigate the connections between genetic material, therapies, and disease progression. Residual blood from the majority of UKSH patients who have agreed to the Broad Consent and received a blood test as part of their treatment is collected in the HEB. The collection is largely independent of the department or medical condition and therefore represents the overall population of UKSH patients. On average, around 720 samples are added to this cohort every month. Within the UKSH Cohort, only the cell layer with DNA-containing cells of the blood samples (buffy coat) is stored, as the focus is on genetic analyses. The samples can be used to analyse parts of the genetic material or the entire genome, which helps researchers to characterise the influence of genetic material on diseases and develop new treatment methods in personalized medicine.
Project-Based Sample Collections of the HEB
The HEB has been optimized through extensive networking of IT systems and automation of sample processing, allowing the biobanking of a large number of new samples with minimal effort in the laboratory. In addition to the UKSH Cohort, which stores buffy coats, we also process other biomaterials such as plasma, serum, urine, cerebrospinal fluid, or saliva. In total, more than 20,000 samples are stored each quarter. The HEB is not limited to collections based on the Broad Consent. Samples from clinical studies requiring a study-specific consent can also be handled. The sample collection using the established infrastructure of the HEB has the advantage that samples are conveniently submitted via the central laboratory and are then automatically processed and frozen as quickly as possible. This workflow has already been successfully applied to large studies such as NAPKON/COVIDOM. Thanks to the high degree of automation, rapid cryopreservation, and electronic documentation of the entire process, the stored samples are of high quality and can be optimally utilized for a wide range of research projects.