ABout Us
We are trusted by many of the world’s top biomedical companies and academic institutes to provide the annotated human specimens needed for the next diagnostic, drug, medical device or basic research breakthrough.
WORKING WITH US
We have high quality facilities mostly located in the UK.
A Trusted Partner including for the world’s largest and most successful pharmaceutical firms and highly regarded academic centers.
Tissue For Research is also a member of two international professional bio-banking organizations:
- ISBER: the International Society for Biological & Environmental Repositories
- ESBB: the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Bio-preservation and Biobanking.
Responsibly and ethically collected in accordance with regulation and law.
Expert clinical biorepositories and exceptional in-depth data with multiple sample formats.
Dedicated whole body donor facilities provide a high quality service 24/7 with times from death to sampling that can be as low as 3 hours.
Single and convenient point of access and project management service.
PUBLICATIONS
The latest peer-reviewed reviews lead-authored by Director, Margaret Clotworthy PhD, may also be of interest.
Dr Clotworthy has also co-authored publications on the ethics, organisation & public acceptability of biobanking.
1. Advances in the development and use of human tissue-based
techniques for drug toxicity testing, Expert Opinion on Drug
Metabolism & Toxicology, May 2013.
Connect with Director,
Dr Margaret Clotworthy,
on LinkedIn.
Frequently asked questions
- High Quality Facilities mostly located in the UK.
- A Trusted Partner including for the world’s largest and most successful pharmaceutical firms and highly regarded academic centers.
- Tissue For Research is also a member of two international professional biobanking organizations:
– ISBER: the International Society for Biological & Environmental Respositories
– ESBB: the European, Middle Eastern and African Society for Biopreservation and Biobanking.
- Responsibly and ethically collected in accordance with regulation and law.
- Expert clinical biorepositories and exceptional in-depth data with multiple sample formats.
- Dedicated whole body donor facilities provide a high quality service 24/7 with times from death to sampling that can be as low as 3 hours.
- Single and convenient point of access and project management service.
Samples from a wide range of diseases are available or can be collected, including:
Metabolic, Degenerative and others…
Please also see:
Why use human tissue samples, blood samples or other biofluid samples?
Humans are genetically unique, with different life styles, diets, disease combinations, treatment combinations and develop diseases at different ages.
This can make human biology complicated to study, but in the end, human tissue samples, before humans ourselves, are the only relevant testbed to advance human medicine.
This is why we provide exclusively human materials: human specimens for clinically relevant research – the only type of research that can really impact patient care
- PMI: Post Mortem Interval (warm ischemic time, and possibly cold ischemic time too)- the time from when the donor passes until the specimen is removed from the donor’s body.
- Warm ischemic time:
Deceased: the time between the donor passing and the tissue sample being removed from the body or the time between the donor dying and the donor’s body being refrigerated. For examples, donors who have undergone post mortem examination at the Coroner’s Office may have quite long cold ischemic times.
Clinical: the time between the blood being cut off from that particular tissue sample and the tissue being refrigerated, frozen or fixed. - Draw time: the time between blood being drawn and processed (for example, to serum or plasma, or frozen)
- TNM, ypT & associated terms: these relate to cancer staging (pathology “p” vs clinical “c”) for detailed explanations, see:
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/diagnosis-staging/staging
https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/diagnosis-staging/prognosis/tumor-grade-fact-sheet
For example, ypT2 means pathology staging (p) of a pre-treated tumor (y) stage 2. Exactly what is implied by “stage 2” depends on the particular cancer type, with different tumor sizes being denoted & locations of invasiveness depending on the physiological site.
- % tumor: this can be measured as % tumor nuclei, or % tumor by surface area, and is determined by a pathologist using an FFPE cancer sample. Please specify if you particularly prefer one type of measurement over the other.
- Maximum acceptable time from sampling to delivery: This is the time from the fresh tissue sample or blood sample being removed from the donor to being delivered to your lab.
- Normal adjacent: this is normal tissue from the same organ or tissue as a diseased tissue sample and removed as part of the same surgery as part of the surgeon’s process to try to ensure all of the disease is removed. (It does not mean that the donor is necessarily free of all other known diseases or cancers in other parts of the body. Please specify your criteria carefully.)
- NAT: Normal Adjacent to Tumor: this is normal margin tissue taken from the same organ or tissue as the cancer sample & resected during surgery to remove a tumor to ensure that all of the tumor is removed.
- Leave enough time: Let us know as soon as you are considering conducting experiments using human tissue samples or blood samples. It may take longer than you think to find the right biospecimens in inventory, or you may need us to arrange a prospective collection to meet your exact requirements. The timing of prospective collections can’t be guaranteed; the number of potential donors can only be estimated based on past experience.
If you also need follow up data, it may also take time to collect. If you need extensive medical histories, that may also take time to prepare.
You may also need to survey the literature in order to set your criteria.
Asking in good time enables you to plan your budget and lab schedule better, and gives us the opportunity to advise you, meaning you have the best chance of getting you the tissue samples you need, with the data you require, in plenty of time to meet your research deadlines.
- Work out your donor criteria: The more stringent your requirements, the longer it may take to find suitable donors/patients.
- Work out your collection protocol and experimental protocol(s): We never want to receive confidential or sensitive information. However, the more information you are happy to provide us with, the surer we can be of providing you with the most suitable biospecimens, saving you time and money whilst maximizing the value of your research.
For example, if you are not sure what your maximum acceptable PMI is (for deceased donors), you may need to review the literature. - Which data do you require? We are unable to provide indentifiable personal information. However, depending on the site, full medical records may be available. Let us know which data are essential, and which data are “nice to have”.
Planning your human biosample project
What will you be using the tissue samples for?
If you wish to study RNA or proteomics, for example, you may prefer frozen tissues to FFPE blocks, slides or curls. However, FFPE specimens are much more prevalent.
Can you use frozen tissues, serum, plasma or buffy coat, or do you need fresh materials?
If you are growing cells, fresh cells are best, but otherwise, frozen specimens are more readily available and less challenging logistically. Samples can be delivered with less time pressure during normal working hours, also reducing your courier costs.
Sourcing biospecimens may require balancing speed of access, numbers of specimens available, logistics and cost to ensure you receive all of the high quality samples you require. Study the literature to find out what other researchers have achieved, and how, and speak with our experts for help working out the best route forward for your research.
We provide fresh and frozen human tissue samples and organs for chemicals, irritancy, corrosivity, toxicity cosmetics and skin permeation testing purposes.
Human tissue samples and biofluid specimens such as blood samples are invaluable at all stages of drug/ therapeutic development, from target discovery and validation through to product testing for safety or efficacy, including FDA/ EMEA cross-reactivity panel testing.
Patients’ specimens play an absolutely pivotal role in medical advances.
If you are considering participating in human biospecimen research, thank you! Although you will not materially benefit, you will be helping future patients.
Tissue For Research does not liaise directly with patients and can not enroll patients directly for studies. Your hospital or hospice will usually have a research coordinator who can assist with this.