Scientific Concept of the National Cohort (status ... - Nationale Kohorte

C.1
C.1 Annex: Description of the study centers
In addition, BIPS has a long-standing experience in quality assurance of population-based
cohort studies. BIPS has coordinated the evaluation of the German Cardiovascular Prevention
Study (DHP) and the Southern German Nasal Cell Carcinoma study and implemented
various control measures regarding survey quality. BIPS also held the exclusive responsibility
for quality control of the second and third survey of the DHP. Moreover, the institute
is in charge of external quality control for the ‘Deutsche Erwachsenen Gesundheitssurvey’
(DEGS) conducted by the Robert-Koch-Institute (RKI) in 180 examination centers across
Germany (N=7,500). H. Bickeböller and P. Falkai from the University Medical School of the
Georg-August-University Goettingen (Universitätsmedizin Goettingen, UMG) will contribute
their scientific experience and will harmonize their Neuro Chort Goettingen (n=3,000) with
the protocol of the National cohort (see Outlook). H. Bickeböller from the Department of Genetic
Epidemiology has long standing experience in epidemiological studies with a genetic
focus. P Falkai from the section on Psychiatric Genetics has longstanding experience in the
establishment and extensive phenotype characterization of large cohorts of patients and
controls for psychiatric genetic epidemiological studies.
The department of Epidemiologic methods and Etiological research integrates core
areas of epidemiologic research in occupational, environmental, and lifestyle epidemiology.
The increasing need to investigate the interplay of complex exposures of the modern
environment and to overcome difficulties regarding validation and quantification of these
exposures requires both sophisticated statistical methods as well as considerable efforts in
exposure assessment. BIPS will head the study center Bremen coordinated by W. Ahrens.
Description of the study center Bremen
In Bremen and the surrounding area, 10,000 study participants will be recruited. The study
center will be located on the ground floor of the BIPS. Accessibility to the study center is
very good since a tram stop is located right in front of the building. The trip from the central
station to the study center takes ca. 10 min. The study center is equipped with four rooms
for physical examinations, and interviews, and a laboratory for preanalytical preparation (in
total ca. 200 m²), plus rooms for storaging biosamples. Currently, there is a cold storage
room (35 m³) where biosamples are kept at –20 ºC, 22 freezers (–20 ºC), and 14 ultra deep
freezers (–80 ºC).
BIPS has a special unit „field work“ that conducts and supervises the recruitment of study
participants. The unit has long-standing experience in adopting and evaluating standardized
survey instruments and in recruiting and following up study participants. The close collaboration
with the cancer registry of Bremen, which is located at BIPS, ensures an efficient
tracing of incident cancer cases.
The Center for advanced imaging (CAI) at Bremen University is one of five outstanding regional
imaging centers in Germany to be designated a “Center of Excellence” (http://www.
med.uni-magdeburg.de/cai/einfuhrung.html). It has expertise in developing new neuroimaging
and visualization techniques. CAI has extensive brain-imaging laboratories at its disposal.
These laboratories are equipped with MRI units for the functional and spectroscopic
examination of human subjects (1.5 T, 3x3 T, and 7 T), animals, and tissues (2x4.7 T, 2x8.4
T, and 14.1 T). It also has a whole-head MEG apparatus with integrated EEG (248/96 channels).
In addition, the Fraunhofer MEVIS - Institute for Medical Image Computing is located
in the neighbouring building of the BIPS. Fraunhofer MEVIS is one of the leading global
and internationally networked research and development centers for computer assistance
in image-based medicine. It follows a patient-centered and workflow-oriented approach to
resolve clinically relevant issues in image-based diagnosis and therapy. Fraunhofer MEVIS
focuses on epidemiologically significant diseases of the cardiovascular system, the brain,
liver and lung, as well as oncological disorders (www.mevis.fraunhofer.de/en/Institute.html).
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