German Biobank Network: Enabling high-quality research

The German Biobank Network (GBN) unites academic biobanks at 37 sites that collect human biosamples and make them available for biomedical research. They establish uniform quality standards and ensure that samples and associated data are accessible throughout Europe. The Biobank of the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry is an observer in this alliance.

The GBN Office, based at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, is funded through the Network of University Medicine (NUM) by the Federal Ministry for Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR). The German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg provides support on IT matters, while the BioMaterialBank Heidelberg (BMBH) and the Integrated Biobank Jena (IBBJ) collaborate on quality management. The GBN represents the interests of German biobanks within the BBMRI-ERIC European research infrastructure, which focuses on the networking and exchange of experience of biobanks within Europe.

Until mid-2025, the German Biobank Network (GBN) was known as the "German Biobank Alliance (GBA)".