The NAKO Central Biorepository

The NAKO Biorepository at the Helmholtz Munich research site is Germany's largest storage system for human biosamples. State-of-the-art infrastructure, highly innovative robotics and expertise enable the biomaterial to be permanently frozen at -80° and -180° Celsius.

About Biorepository

The samples at the Biorepository come from the NAKO health study. Since 2014, 205000 women and men aged 20-69 have been examined in 18 study centers throughout Germany as part of the largest population study. In addition to a physical examination and the recording of medical history and lifestyle habits, up to five different types of biomaterials are taken, depending on the study wave: Blood, urine, saliva, nasal swabs, and stool samples. The blood is stored in up to five components (serum, plasma, erythrocytes, RNA, and buffy coat for DNA isolation). These biosamples are stored for years for later analysis and global research projects. The variety and quantity of sample material stored from the large number of study participants, with a sustainably assured sample quality, is what makes this collection so exceptional. This scientific treasure can support epidemiological research well into the 2040s, and unique insights can be gained for health research, and pioneering medical applications can be developed.
Data protection also has top priority at the central biorepository. All biosample data is stored and processed exclusively in pseudonymized form.

Discover the NAKO Central Biorepository

Multiple-use

To prevent the entire biomaterial of a sample from being used for just one research question, the biosamples of each participant are divided into up to 116 subsamples. A proportion of these remain directly in the NAKO study centers as part of the back-up strategy and are stored there at -80°C. The majority of these biosamples, around 19 million, are stored in the central biorepository at Helmholtz Munich.

Tracing System

Each sample tube is equipped with an individual barcode so that the location of a biosample can be traced at any time. The laboratory and management system controls and monitors all steps in the sample's journey: from collection in the study centers to storage in and later removal from the central biorepository

Innovative Concept

The biorepository has two storage systems from Liconic AG (Mauren, Lichtenstein). Both systems are prototypes that were specially developed by Liconic AG (Mauren, Lichtenstein) for the highly innovative storage concept of the NAKO Biorepository.

Automation

The -80°C storage facility is equivalent to a huge laboratory refrigerator that can hold around 2.7 million samples. This storage system is partially automated: A robot removes the storage racks from the cooling area so that the sample racks (carrier plates for up to 96 individual tubes) can be placed in or removed by hand.

Storage

In the -180°C storage facility, the samples are stored in large tanks in the gas phase above liquid nitrogen. The storage facility can hold up to 22 nitrogen tanks, each of which contains around 1 million samples. At present, the storage facility houses 18 tanks. This storage system is fully automated. A special robot, which also works at very cold temperatures, takes over the storage and retrieval process.

Sorting Line

The warehouse is supplemented by a state-of-the-art sample sorting line from Askion GmbH (Gera, Germany). This increases the efficiency of the existing storage systems by sorting, defragmenting and compacting the sample collection.

Longevity

The biorepository's storage systems enable efficient storage and secure long-term storage of large quantities of samples for at least 30 years. The first major storage projects for scientific analyses started in 2024.