About Johannes Kepler University

JKU has a total of four faculties (Faculty of Engineering & Natural Sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Economics & Business, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Medicine) and four schools that are organizational units with research and teaching responsibilities (Linz Institute of Technology, Linz School of Education, Business School, Kurt Rothschild School of Economics and Statistics). Among these are more than 120 institutes and competence centers.
The Faculty of Medicine, founded in 2014, is the youngest faculty. The JKU is the first university in Austria to offer studies in Human Medicine in the Bachelor / Master degree system. The Faculty of Medicine is home to 30 institutes and 3 degree programs for approximately 1,800 enrolled students.
The Kepler University Hospital served as a foundation to create the Johannes Kepler’s University new Faculty of Medicine. It has over 1,800 patient beds and almost 7,000 employees, making it Austria’s second largest hospital and central healthcare provider in Upper Austria.

About Johannes Kepler University Biobank

The JKU biobank is currently in the phase of ’building the house’. A detailed concept project has preceded the implementation phase, accompanied and benefiting by participation in BBMRI.at #2. The concept project contributed to a broad understanding of the biobanking needs, options and chances at the MED campus. The design of the JKU Biobank concept is such that an addition of a biobank module at the Kepler Universitätsklinikum would be feasible (liquid samples).
The JKU biobank will be launched initially as a tissue biobank, in conjunction with the clinical institute of pathology and molecular pathology and with the goal to collect project-linked biomaterials originating from patients of the nearby hospital campus. The biobank is located at Medical Faculty’s center for medical research, consisting of deep freeze storage equipment (nitrogen vapor phase tanks as well as -80°C ultralow freezers) in dedicated lab space. User requirements for a biobank information management system were defined and implementation will take place in parallel with purchase of biobank infrastructure equipment.
The combination of sample collection according to standardized procedures and the association with valuable sample related data (e.g. clinical data, digital pathology data) will lead to an upgrade of sample material and thus contribute to research output.
Setup of living cell biobanking is considered as a core service option of the biobank (creation of cell cultures, development of spheroids and organoids) and upgraded sample materials may serve various research applications, including lab-on-a-chip technologies.
Furthermore, the biobank’s potential is seen as being a facilitator for stepping into research projects and starting research collaborations. The biobank is regarded as a valuable tool for networking between institutions of the local campus (institutes of medical faculty and other university institutes, core facilities of center for medical research) or research institutions outside the campus (e.g. university of applied sciences Upper Austria) inclusive of industrial companies.