Heidelberg – On Tuesday, July 18, 2023, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) opened the “Dieter Morszeck Repository”: a fully automated logistics center for valuable frozen biological samples for cancer research. The Dieter Morszeck Foundation supported the construction with 15 million euros.
Modern cancer research is unthinkable without biological samples. Automated high-throughput analysis techniques enable scientists to quickly analyze thousands of blood or urine samples in search of specific metabolic products, messenger substances, hormones, DNA or RNA molecules. Equally important are samples of living cells. Scientists speak of liquid or living biopsies.
But automated analysis is of little use if the degree of automation in storing and handling the samples cannot keep up. Funded by the Dieter Morszeck Foundation, the DKFZ therefore set up the so-called “biorepository” – a logistics center for the long-term storage of valuable biomaterials.
Comparable to the large logistics centers of the online dealers, special robotics in the Dieter Morszeck Biorepository ensure that the samples are stored and transferred in fully automated work processes under deep-frozen conditions. Each individual sample tube can be identified by a barcode and specifically stored or removed. The time-consuming manual work with liquid nitrogen, in which the liquid biopsies are stored at -196 degrees Celsius, has come to an end.
“The biosamples from our clinical studies and from prevention studies are the treasure trove of cancer research. We are extremely grateful to the Dieter Morszeck Foundation for supporting us in the construction of this central infrastructure, which is so important for the DKFZ,” says Michael BaumannChairman of the Board and Scientific Director of the DKFZ.
The five-storey biorepository building planned by Behnisch Architekten, Stuttgart, offers laboratory space on the ground floor, while the three floors above are intended for the automated storage tanks. The top floor contains a technical center. The biorepository was completed in less than three years. “The issue of sustainability was particularly important to us: the green facade on all four sides will thermally insulate the building – and also make it a real eye-catcher on campus,” says Ursula WeyrichCommercial Director of the DKFZ.
At the moment only one floor is equipped with automated tanks. “The large studies on cancer prevention research, sometimes with many thousands of participants, which are currently being carried out or are planned at the DKFZ, will ensure an enormous increase in biosamples,” explains Holger Sultmann, Scientific Director of the Biorepository. “In the future – depending on the number of samples – the other two floors of the building are to be successively equipped with tanks.”
Each of the automated storage tanks, of which the biorepository will eventually house 18, can hold up to 800,000 samples. A nitrogen storage tank with a capacity of 25,000 liters is separate from the building but integrated into the outer shell of the building. The storage tanks are currently being flooded with nitrogen and trial operation can begin. From November, the robotics and automation should run smoothly so that the routine storage of the samples can begin.
A picture of the opening is available at:
Caption: Holger Sültmann, Michael Baumann, Lily and Dieter Morszeck, Ursula Weyrich and Stefan Behnisch at the opening (from left to right)
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With more than 3,000 employees, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) is the largest biomedical research facility in Germany. Scientists at the DKFZ research how cancer develops, record cancer risk factors and search for new strategies to prevent people from developing cancer. They are developing new methods with which tumors can be diagnosed more precisely and cancer patients can be treated more successfully. The Cancer Information Service (KID) of the DKFZ provides those affected, interested parties and specialist groups with individual answers to all questions on the subject of cancer.
In order to transfer promising approaches from cancer research to the clinic and thus improve the chances of patients, the DKFZ operates translation centers together with excellent university clinics and research institutions throughout Germany:
National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT, 6 locations) German Consortium for Translational Cancer Research (DKTK, 8 locations) Hopp Children’s Cancer Center (KiTZ) Heidelberg Helmholtz Institute for Translational Oncology (HI-TRON) Mainz – a Helmholtz Institute of the DKFZ DKFZ-Hector Cancer Institute at the University Medicine Mannheim National Cancer Prevention Center (together with the German Cancer Aid)
The DKFZ is funded 90 percent by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research and 10 percent by the state of Baden-Württemberg and is a member of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers.