
The Biomedical Laboratory provides essential support for basic research, preclinical and clinical studies conducted at the DDZ.
The Biomedical Laboratory is divided in the units:
- Gas and liquid chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry
- Clinical Chemistry, Hormone Analytics & Biobanking
Gas and liquid chromatography-coupled mass spectrometry

Markgraf et al., Int J Mol Sci; 2017
The mass spectrometry-based analysis of isotope-labeled tracers presents a major focus of the platform. We routinely determine the endogenous glucose production after infusion of isotope-labeled glucose using GC-MS. In addition, we apply LC-MS/MS approaches to measure diabetes-relevant, lipotoxic lipids in blood and subcellular fractions of tissue samples. Finally, methods to analyze various metabolites, such as fatty acids and amino acids, are routinely applied.
Clinical Chemistry, Hormone Analytics & Biobanking
We analyze a broad panel of laboratory diagnostic parameters to support clinical studies conducted at the DDZ and multicenter studies. Immunological and enzymatic assays are used to analyze diabetic and non-diabetic hormones. We successfully established the infrastructure and implemented procedures to organize the biobank of the German Diabetes Study, a multicenter study within the framework of the DZD.