Your Donation

How can I donate biospecimens?

If you are being treated in a clinic for a disease or participating in a study, it is often necessary for blood, tissue, or other body material to be taken for diagnosis or therapeutic reasons. If you consent, this material can also be used for research. For this purpose, it is first stored in a biobank and later used for scientific research.

What will my sample be used for?

Biospecimens are indispensable for biomedical research for the prevention, detection, and treatment of diseases. A single biospecimen can be used for many different future research purposes. Often, the exact intended use is not even known at the time the sample is donated.

When you donate a biospecimen, the sample is first processed and then stored in a biobank. In this way, it remains preservable for a very long time. If scientists are looking for specific samples for a research project, they ask the biobank whether they are available. If this is the case, the ethics committee must first have no objections to the planned research project. After that, the biobank's scientific advisory board must also agree to the release of requested biospecimens. In this way, each sample donation can contribute to developing new therapies and better treat future generations of patients.

Is my data safe?

Biobank samples and data are protected from unauthorized access at all times. With the biospecimens, some personal data such as age, date of birth, gender are stored. The data is encrypted (pseudonymized) and stored according to valid data protection laws. Only in encrypted form - i.e., without direct reference to the respective person - are the samples and data used for research.