About Medical University of Graz

Medical University of Graz is associated with the University Hospital of Graz, with 1,600 beds and 87,000 patients/year. Over 2,500 academic and general staff members and around 4,350 students conduct research, teach and learn with a spirit of innovation for patients’ health and well-being. Patient data privacy and cybersecurity is of utmost priority for the university which is accordingly building the relevant competency. Medical University of Graz operates a Comprehensive Cancer Center and is member of OECI; hosts the Austrian National Node (NN) of the European Biobanking and BioMolecular Resources Research Infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC and operates one of Europe’s largest and ISO-certified biobanks. The university further hosts the Austrian Competence Centre for Biomarker Research in Medicine CBmed and the national digital pathology infrastructure located at the D&R Institute of Pathology.

About Biobank Graz

Biobank Graz is part of the organization unit for research infrastructure of the Medical University of Graz and holds an extensive collection of 21 million paraffin-embedded tissue and fluid samples (blood, serum, plasma et cetera) and the associated clinical data.

Samples are stored carefully according to international quality standards (ISO 9001:2015) and the applicable data protection laws and can be accessed for research purposes when an informed consent by the patient and a positive vote from the ethics committee is given.

Researchers can profit from many biobank collections at Biobank Graz. An overview of the cohort profiles and information on how to request samples can be found on the website (see link below).

• Project development and project coordination
• Provision of specimens and data for research
• Planning and implementation of prospective study cohorts
• Specimen and data processing and data cleaning
• Integration of existing collections
• Storage of specimens
• Support with Ethics Committee applications
• Contact and networking with other biobanks

Biobank Graz contributes to various national and international research projects (examples below):

About the Coordination

At Med Uni Graz, the Diagnostic & Research Institute of Pathology is coordinating BBMRI.at, the Austrian Biobanking Research Infrastructure and National Node of the European Biobanking Research Infrastructure BBMRI-ERIC with Prof Dr Luka Brcic as Scientific Coordinator and Mag. Cornelia Stumptner as Executive Manager.
The D&R Institute of Pathology has established one of Europe’s highest digitalization capacities for pathological slides. This includes high capacity data storage, cybersecurity solutions for cloud services and innovative AI-technologies.
Experts from the BBMRI.at coordination the D&R Institute of Pathology have been leading the development of several ISO and CEN standards concerning pre-analytical requirements for biological samples used in vitro diagnostics. Examples are ISO 20166-3:2018 ‘FFPE tissue – isolated DNA’; ISO 20166-4:2021 ‘FFPE tissue – in situ detection’, CEN/TS 17626:2021 and ISO/TS 18701 ‘human specimens – microbiome DNA’, standard ISO 24051-2 Digital Pathology & AI-based image). They also are contributing to several other standards (relevant for biobanking and medical laboratories) and collaborating with accreditation bodies and notified bodies concerning requirements of the European in-vitro diagnostics regulation (IVDR).

The Institute of Pathology contributes to various national and international research projects (examples below):