Planning your human tissue, organ, blood CSF or other biosample project
- 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 identifiable 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”.
