07/H0606/85

Oxfordshire REC C

Oxford Radcliffe NHS Trust

Thomas Willis Oxford Brain Collection

Thomas Willis Oxford Brain Collection

Permission to publish contact details not yet received

Permission to publish contact details not yet received

TWOBC stores biopsy tissue surplus to diagnostic requirements from brain, meninges, spinal cord, peripheral nerves, muscle, pituitary gland and eyes for which consent to the use of tissue for research has been obtained. Many of these samples are from tumours. Much of the material is fixed in formalin but we also store small tissue samples fresh frozen at -70ºC. Data available on these cases is the data supplied with the diagnostic request form.

Most of the samples consist of the whole brain with or without spinal cord. Some samples are small tissue blocks from brain, spinal cord, pituitary gland, peripheral nerves, muscle, tumours, viscera and a few eyes. Many samples are subdivided to include fixed and frozen samples (e.g. many whole brains are divided in half, one half being fixed and the other frozen) so that they are suitable for a wide range of reserach investigations.

All cases have a diagnostic work-up before any tissue is used for research. This is 1) to ensure that cases are classified in correct diagnostic categories, 2) for safety purposes (e.g. to exclude Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease) and 3) also to provide feedback to families about the diagnosis if this has been requested.

Some cases are stored as part of a defined project, e.g. the Oxford Project to Investigate Memory and Ageing (OPTIMA) with financial support from charitable sources. Others are collected as part of a planned tissue collection, e.g. we are setting up a UK collection of autism brains as part of an international effort to promote research on autism led by the US Autism Tissue Programme. Other cases result from local awareness of the need for research promoted through, e.g. motor neuron disease clinics and memory clinics.

By making tissue available for research into neurologic and psychiatric diseases.

Studies to further the understanding of neurologic and psychiatric diseases. Most studies will be neuropathological, biochemical, pharmacological or genetic in nature.

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