The UK Brain Banks Network supplies tissue samples to academic and industry researchers in the UK and internationally. All brain banks in the Network have approval to provide tissue samples to research projects and pilot studies. Approval is based on scientific merit and also takes into account ethical issues (if peer review and ethics approval has not already been obtained).
Researchers can search an online database that carries details of all the tissue samples available throughout the Network.
For broader queries regarding the Network, researchers can also contact the database manager Richard Cain.
We ask that all researchers using tissue obtained from the banks inform the bank that provided the tissue of any papers accepted for publication. You will be contacted annually for an update of your publications. This helps us to publicise the success of the banks and secure future funding.
Dr Vicki Robinson Chief Executive NC3Rs (National Centre for the Replacement Refinement & Reduction of Animals in Research)
‘The use of human brain tissues for basic and applied research represents an excellent opportunity to reduce the use of some animal models as well as providing information that is likely to be more predictive of what happens in the human brain, rather than that of the rat or mouse. It can be difficult to access primary human material and the UK Brain Bank Network is an important step to overcoming the barriers to the wider use of human tissue.’
Professor Jonathan Mill, Professor of Epigenetics (University of Exeter)
‘The UK Brain Bank Network has been invaluable for our studies looking at molecular variation in the brain associated with neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disease. We’ve been able to access tissue from well-phenotypes samples and extract high quality DNA and RNA for our epigenetic and transcriptomic analyses.’
Professor Sadaf Farooqi, Professor of Metabolism and Medicine (MRC Metabolic Diseases Unit at the University of Cambridge)
‘It is well known that disruption of a number of genes that are expressed in the brain can lead to obesity. Although there is a substantial amount of new information emerging from genetic studies and work in animal models, this work would be greatly supported by access to human brain tissue.’
The UK Brain Banks Network database carries details of all the tissue samples available throughout the Network. Researchers are required to register with the database and to obtain a user login in order to search for tissue samples.
In most cases, the answer is no. All of the brain banks in the Network have generic ethics committee approval to function as research tissue banks, which means that they can provide tissue samples to UK-based researchers for a broad range of studies without the need for the researchers to obtain their own ethics approval.
The UK legislation covering generic ethics committee approval of research tissue banks does not, however, cover research outside of the UK, for which separate ethical approval is generally needed. In addition, the scope of generic ethics committee approval to the individual brain banks may not cover all types of research for which tissue is requested.
All potential users of the database must register to use the system by completing a registration request form using the database’s web interface.
You will be asked to provide:
The database also allows users to search for cases/tissue by applying a range of search criteria. You can search for cases based on disease/diagnosis/cause of death, find control cases, age range, gender, brain pH range, post-mortem delay and the type of tissue (CNS, muscle, fixed, frozen, etc.).
Users can also browse through all of the cases submitted to the database by an individual brain bank if they wish to access tissue from that particular bank.
Yes. The My Collection button acts in a similar manner to an online shopping cart, where users can save cases of interest.
You can contact brain banks about any of the samples stored in the database. The contact details are shown on the information page for each case on the UKBBN database or you can get the email addresses of the brain banks directly from the Brain Banks page of the UKBBN database.
You can email the brain banks holding the tissue samples in which you are interested by using the email addresses provided on the Brain Banks page of the UKBBN database.
If you find out that tissue is from a cohort participant, you may be able to request additional information from investigators running the study. Information on current UK cohort studies can be found in the MRC’s cohort directory.