With the construction of a biorepository building at the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, the Dieter Morszeck Foundation was able to make a significant contribution to the establishment of a central infrastructure. The building is equipped with a unique, fully automated, robotic liquid biopsy facility combined with a semi-automated living biopsy platform.

Liquid biopsies, such as blood or urine, are becoming increasingly important in medical research, especially in cancer research. They play a decisive role in the development of innovative procedures for the early detection and therapy monitoring of tumor diseases. As the samples are often collected on a large scale, for example in the course of large clinical trials and prevention studies, manual processing and storage is almost impossible. At the same time, modern living biopsies, which contain living cells, are becoming increasingly important for personalized medicine and the development of new therapies.

The newly created Dieter Morszeck Biorepository houses an advanced infrastructure with a fully and semi-automated, robotic facility for liquid and living biopsies. Similar to a logistics center for valuable biomaterials, the special robotics ensure the storage and transfer of samples at an extremely low temperature of minus 196 degrees Celsius. This means that all biomaterials remain intact for up to 20 years until completely new examination methods may become available. Each sample is given a barcode that enables precise identification and targeted storage or removal of the samples. With four floors and around 1250 square meters of floor space, the building in Neuenheimer Feld is one of the most modern storage systems in the whole of Europe. This closes an existing gap in many innovative cancer research projects in various areas of early detection, drug development and therapy monitoring.