# Westdeutsche Biobank Essen (WBE)

Source: https://onco.cc/collections/westdeutsche-biobank-essen/  
OnCo record `westdeutsche-biobank-essen` (Collection). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

The central biobank of the university hospital in Essen, Germany, home of the West German Cancer Center. It stores patients' samples so researchers can study the causes of disease and better diagnosis and treatment.

## Summary

The directory describes the West German Biobank Essen as a central service facility of the Duisburg-Essen Medical Faculty at Essen University Hospital, supporting research into the causes of disease and improvement of diagnosis and therapy. Its juridical person is Universitätsklinikum Essen. Two collections are listed: the main collection (564,674 samples, as read on 4 November 2026) and a placeholder for COVID-19 cases with no samples.

## Fields

- Kind: Collection
- Last checked: 2026-11-04
- Also known as: WBE; West German Biobank Essen
- URL: https://www.uni-due.de/med/biobank/
- Holds: The central biobank of the Medical Faculty of the University of Duisburg-Essen at Essen University Hospital; its main collection in the BBMRI-ERIC Directory reports 564,674 samples.

## Notes

- Directory id bbmri-eric:ID:DE_WBE. Description, juridical person and collection counts read from the BBMRI-ERIC Directory GraphQL endpoint (https://directory.bbmri-eric.eu/ERIC/graphql) on 4 November 2026; counts are what the biobank reported to the directory, not an audit.
- The directory does not split the main collection by diagnosis in the fields read, so no cancer-specific count is given.

## Sources

- Westdeutsche Biobank Essen (WBE): https://www.uni-due.de/med/biobank/
- BBMRI-ERIC Directory entry bbmri-eric:ID:DE_WBE: https://directory.bbmri-eric.eu/ERIC/directory/

## Connected records

- institutions: [BBMRI-ERIC (Biobanking and BioMolecular resources Research Infrastructure)](https://onco.cc/institutions/bbmri-eric/), [West German Cancer Center (WTZ), University Hospital Essen](https://onco.cc/institutions/essen-wtz/)
- technologies: [Biobanking and tissue procurement](https://onco.cc/technologies/biobanking/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/westdeutsche-biobank-essen.json