Schirmacher Peter

University Hospital Heidelberg

Institute of Pathology

Im Neuenheimer Feld 224

69120 Heidelberg, Germany

Phone: 0049-6221-56 4161

Email: peter.schirmacher@med.uni-heidelberg.de

Curriculum Vitae

INTERNAL

Project Specific Informations

Short Summary

Successful translational research in DZIF requires the reliable access to collections of quality-controlled, standardized, and well-documented biomaterials, as these are necessary to achieve meaningful and reproducible research results. To ensure professional and centrally coordinated biobanking activities within DZIF, the TI Biobanking was established as a key infrastructure. Its mission is to support the decentralized biobanking efforts at the partner sites to provide high-quality, fit-for-purpose bioresources and data within DZIF and with that to support all DZIF studies and projects with biomaterial collection, biobanking service and technology platform.

Since 2021 the TI Biobanking unites its expertise with the former infrastructures Pathogen Repository, Bioinformatics and Machine Learning, and Epidemiology to the new infrastructure Bioresources, Biodata and Digital Health (BBD) in order to support all DZIF researcher even better and to enable the translation of basic research findings into new approaches and applications for the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of infectious diseases. Within the TI BBD the Biobanking unit takes care of tissue and liquid biobanking, administrated at the Heidelberg site (TI 12.005) and Munich site (TI 12.004), respectively, while the central TI coordination is located at the Heidelberg site. The TI successfully established a versatile biobanking service and technology platform to support the decentralized biobanking efforts in DZIF by offering expertise and individual support to all DZIF projects with biomaterial collection. In addition to its service platform, the TI provides education and training measures for DZIF staff, a DZIF-wide central biosample register (DZIF-ZBR) for sample and clinical data as well as suitable tissue collectives for individual research projects through the DZIF tissue bank. Since its start, the central DZIF tissue bank has supported more than 100 research projects, of which 16 supported projects were COVID-19 research projects, offering rapid and reliable access to relevant tissue biospecimens and its tissue technology platform. Moreover the TI established a three-step quality management system, including standard operating procedures (SOPs), internal audits and sample quality control measures, first introduced to the DZIF Transplant (Tx-) cohort.

Highlights

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