Ethical tissue: a not-for-profit model for human tissue supply

Abstract

Following legislative changes in 2004 and the establishment of the Human Tissue Authority, access to human tissues for biomedical research became a more onerous and tightly regulated process. Ethical Tissue was established to meet the growing demand for human tissues, using a process that provided ease of access by researchers whilst maintaining the highest ethical and regulatory standards. The establishment of a licensed research tissue bank entailed several key criteria covering ethical, legal, financial and logistical issues being met. A wide range of stakeholders, including the HTA, University of Bradford, flagged LREC, hospital trusts and clinical groups were also integral to the process.

Ethical Tissue: A Bioresource Specialising in Broad Prospective Supply of Tissue from a Wide Range of Participants

“…When Ethical Tissue was founded in 2007 the aims were a) to provide a researcher led tissue supply service across most diseases and conditions, b) to make it as simple as possible for researchers to access tissues, c) to maximise tissue supply and minimise tissue banking, "supply not store" and d) to be self-sustaining through a cost recovery model [1] Sustainability and sound business planning has become increasingly important due to constrained budgets in higher education institutes and elsewhere [2,3]. Currently ET recovers over 80% of its costs through service charges to researchers.…”

Building a ‘Repository of Science’: The importance of integrating biobanks within molecular pathology programmes

“…In order to make such samples available for research, 'biobanking' has become the conduit for the standardised collection, storage and distribution of human samples; in turn maximising biospecimen quality but also meeting many of the legal and ethical challenges for the use of human specimens in research. [3] Biobanks are now recognised as the cornerstone of biomarker discovery and personalized medicine. [4].…”