Donating tissue
Ethical Tissue collects samples, most commonly blood and urine, from other donor groups which may include healthy volunteers from the staff and student cohort of the University of Bradford.
Scientists need human tissue, cells and body fluids for research into how a disease starts as well as finding different ways of diagnosing and treating a disease or illness. The purpose of Ethical Tissue is to help them achieve this.
To read how our samples are used in practice, please visit our Research studies page.
Who can donate
Hospital Patients
We ask people who are coming into hospital or a clinic for treatment whether they would like to take part in ongoing biomedical research.
Healthy volunteers
Researchers need to have samples from Healthy Volunteers to compare with those who have a disease or disorder. The sort of samples that are requested will match the age range, gender mix and sometimes, ethnicity of the disease or disorder under study.
Volunteers with conditions
We sometimes receive requests from researchers for small samples of blood, urine or other body fluids from individuals who have a defined, managed disease or disorder. This type of volunteer may include:
- Type 2 Diabetes sufferers
- Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) sufferers
- Regular users of prescribed Statins
Donor samples
When donors agree to be involved, the samples we have permission to collect are transported to our tissue bank and either used immediately or stored for use at a later date. We may send some stored samples to other approved tissue banks or companies both in the UK and abroad to support their research work.
All tissue samples need some basic information about the donor and some specific information about the donation. Basic information about the donor could include age, gender, ethnicity, smoking history, and alcohol use. Specific information about the donation could include the type of tissue requested, medical history of the donor, and the current medications the donor is taking. A researcher may need some or all of this information.
Donors can have complete confidence that their personal details are never released, all donations and information go out to the researcher using the unique code on their consent form and are completely anonymous. Donors can also withdraw their support from ongoing biomedical research by writing to us in confidence.
Contact Ethical Tissue
To request tissue, discuss your biosample needs, or talk about donating tissue, you can contact us in one of the following ways.