General guidelines for working with biomaterial

Prerequisite for the success of biomarker research is professional biobanking. In the disease-oriented competence network MS (KKNMS) biobanking includes extensive collection of

  • cellular and non-cellular biomaterial as well as
  • CNS tissue samples

The samples will be stored on location in Munich (non-cellular material), Münster (cellular) and Göttingen (CNS tissue). The organization of this biomaterial will, however, be carried out centrally via a data bank which will be systematically expanded during the second funding phase. Investigators who wish to use biosamples from the KKNMS will have the opportunity to submit project proposals to an expert committee for data and biomaterial use, ethics and data projection (FaBIO). Thanks to the professionalized biobanking the KKNMS has already been able to connect with international research consortia (e.g. the International MS Genetic Consortium, the EU consortia BEST-MS and NABIMS).

At present the following studies are utilizing the infrastructure of the biobank:

  • MS cohort study
  • NMO cohort study
  • REGIMS
  • MS Brain Bank
  • PPMS study

Furthermore, the guidelines for collection, storage and analysis of biosamples will be defined within the project. A project time will also develop criteria for quality management as well as data protection.

The coordinator of this project is Prof. Dr. Bernhard Hemmer (Technical University Munich). Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Brück (University Medical Center Göttingen) and Prof. Dr. Heinz Wiendl (University of Münster) will serve as co-coordinators.

biomaterialproben-klein_v2
Standardized application of biosample sets.