Biorepositories / Tissue

Home / Research Areas & Assets / Biorepositories / Tissue

Scotland has a national system of tissue banks which facilitates the routine or bespoke collection of common and rare tissues.  A number of collections in the bank are from very larger clinical trials such as WOSCOPS, PROSPER, Generation Scotland and are accessed regularly to explore the potential utility of new biomarkers.

The availability of this stored material together with, in some cases, 20 years of follow up electronic medical records is a fast and efficient way of assessing how well novel biomarkers predict incident of disease.

Special collections of particular strategic value are curated including brain banks, samples from diabetics, hyperlipidemics, pregnancy cohorts, the elderly and site specific cancer biobanks such as the Breast Cancer national Tissue Bank for the UK and Eire.  A specialist brain tissue bank opened in 2011 in Glasgow.

In some health boards, generic consent is obtained routinely from all patients to store surplus tissue from operations and to supply this material to partners together with appropriate (de-identified) medical history.

Leading researchers including Professor Graeme Murray, Professor David Harrison, Professor Frank Carey and Professor Barry Gusterson.

Generation Scotland is a ground breaking genetic health initiative to assess genetic predisposition to heart disease, diabetes, stroke, osteoporosis and mental health.  It links de-identified information on individuals and their close relatives with information on their lifestyle and healthcare history.

There are also companies in Scotland who undertake specialist services in this area including Tissue Solutions Scotland.

 



University Of Aberdeen University Of Dundee The University Of Edinburgh University Of Glasgow NHS Scotland Scottish Enterprise European Regional Development Fund Chief Scientist Office
Website design development & hosting by MTC Media Copyright 2011 Health Science Scotland