Brain, Neural & Spinal Cord

Trusted by the world’s top biomedical companies and academic institutes to provide human tissues for medical research.

Please note that we now have improved access to blood samples from donors with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease. However, access to neural tissues is currently limited due to high demand at our partner collection sites. Please contact us if you would like to be added to a waiting list.

We either have inventory or can collect biospecimens from most diagnoses with the exception of some rare diseases.

Precise availability depends on;

Your patient criteria,
How you would like the samples to be prepared
Which data you need with each sample.

Pathology reports, clinical history and follow up data may be available for various collections.

FFPE blocks or curls/slides are most likely to be available from living patients who have undergone surgery or biopsy, although frozen specimens may also be available and fresh samples may be collected prospectively.

Deceased donors’ specimens can be prepared according to your exact criteria.

Brain, dura, skull, spine/ spinal cord, neural cell clusters/ ganglia and CSF are available, as may specific nerves / neuromuscular junctions.

Please note that the gut is also particularly rich in neural tissue, and is reported to share certain CNS characteristics, if you would like to examine another set of nerves for comparison.

Formats:

Brain tissue can be shipped fresh, frozen, in 10% NBF or FFPE – please see below for an explanation of availability, depending on the tissue type.

Brains from neurologically normal donors, as well as from donors with neurological diseases, can be provided whole or can be provided sectioned.

Clinical samples:

Brain tumors

Tumor tissue types:

Brain tumor samples, such as glioblastoma, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) and astrocytoma are already banked in our partner clinical biorepository tumor brain banks.

The amount of normal tissue available from clinical donors is naturally small, if there is any available at all, due the the need to minimize any unnecessary tissue damage.

Other diseases:

There may also be abscess, cyst or blastomycosis samples available (these are all very rare) or other infections of the CNS, where CSF collection is required for diagnosis.

Formats:

These brain tumor tissues are available as FFPE sections or FFPE blocks, or as frozen tissue aliquots. These samples are from clinical donors, and usually have matched FFPE, frozen, serum, plasma and buffy coat from each donor.

CSF may be available, for conditions where this needs to be removed for diagnostic analysis & some is surplus to diagnostic requirements.

Data:

Clinical brain tumor samples are available with detailed pathology reports including histology, and extensive clinical histories can be mined, while follow up data are usually available. Please contact us on info@biobankonline.com to request a typical example of an anonymized clinical donor report.

CSF may be available, for conditions where this needs to be removed for diagnostic analysis & some is surplus to diagnostic requirements.

Clinical brain tumor samples are available with detailed pathology reports including histology, and extensive clinical histories can be mined, while follow up data are usually available. Please contact us to request a typical example of an anonymized clinical donor report.

Post mortem brain & other tissues

Accio Biobank Online is delighted to announce that to further expand the range of fresh organ and tissue research we can support, we have partnered with a highly experienced organ procurement network. This means that we can facilitate your access to non-transplantable organs and tissues kindly donated by organ donors.

Central Nervous System (CNS)

– including brain & spinal cord, as well as the skull & spine/ particular vertabrae.

Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

– including the Somatic Nervous System (SoNS) and the Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) (sympathetic & parasympathetic systems) tissue samples

Disease states:

Normal brains and brain tissue samples / other nervous tissue samples can be banked for you prospectively, as well as brains from donors with stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease & other diseases, although donors with degenerative diseases do not present regularly. We collect prospectively according to your specifications, rather than operating a standing brain bank.

Post mortem interval:

The shortest possible time between death and brain tissue or other neural tissue removal is approximately 3 hours, but donors will be available much more frequently if you can go up to 12 hours or more between death and neural tissue removal.

Formats:

Brains and brain samples are available fresh, frozen or fixed in 10% NBF. Tissues may be frozen whole at -80, flash frozen in liquid Nitrogen, or flash frozen in liquid Nitrogen vapor. The brain can also be sliced at 1cm intervals on a teflon-coated Aluminium plate and frozen in liquid Nitrogen vapor, in order to maximize the tissues’ utility for histology. We will always do our best to facilitate any processing requests – please contact us to discuss further.

Data:

Please contact us to request a typical example of an anonymized post mortem brain tissue donor clinical report. Histology/ Pathology reports are not currently available for post mortem donor tissues, but we are happy to ship specimens to the service provider of your choice.

Please note: apart from brain tumors specimens from clinical donors, we do not routinely bank brains or other CNS samples in specific brain banks. This is because we usually prefer to collect specimens prospectively so that they meet your exact requirements in terms of post mortem interval, storage & shipping, donor gender, age, disease & treatment, as well as clinical data required.

Please contact us to discuss your whole brain, skull, CNS, PNS or other neural tissue sample requirements.