Partner Profile

Biobank Graz


Areas of Expertise

Biobank Graz – the hub for biobanking in Europe

Biobank Graz is one of the largest repositories of clinical samples in Europe and comprises nearly six million normal and diseased samples, including formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues (FFPE), fresh frozen tissue samples, blood and other body fluids.

Biobank Graz is a central research facility of the Medical University of Graz in Austria and hence is a publicly owned non-profit organisation supported by public funds (Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF), Local Government of Styria (Zukunftsfond Steiermark)). Biobank Graz is ISO 9001:2008 certified and runs a QM system with respective SOPs in place. Biobank Graz handles biological samples in a way to fully protect personal rights and privacy of sample donors. To offer the highest sample quality possible, Biobank Graz runs powerful logistics and has set up a new automated infrastructure for handling and storage of samples at room temperature, minus 80°C and below minus 130°C (liquid nitrogen), also enabling prospective collections of samples and data based on the requirements and needs of the scientists.

Biobank Graz has recently developed into a biological resource centre specifically designed to support scientific approaches that foster medical research and personalised medicine.Biobank Graz is directly linked to cutting-edge technologies (all –omics) and sustainable high quality research services based at the Center of Medical Research (ZMF) of the Medical University of Graz. Biobank Graz is also directly linked to the highly renowned clinical expertise of the University Hospital Graz.

Biobank Graz is an active leading player in (inter) national projects and activities aiming to improve interactions between biobanks and scientists, a member of the ESBB Biobanking Society (www.esbb.org), the Austrian node of BBMRI (BBMRI.AT) and thus is member of the European network of biobanks BBMRI (www.bbmri.eu). The headquarters of BBMRI.AT, as well as the headquarters of the European network, BBMRI-ERIC, will be established close to Biobank Graz in 2014.

Recent Publications

Research Interests
  • Personalised medicine;
  • Biobanking-related research;
  • International biobanking networks;
  • Ethical, legal and social aspects of biobanking (ELSA);
  • Optimising the pre-analytical workflow;