Registration of a research collection

Following the issue of a letter from the Chief Medical Officer regarding an “Accreditation scheme for the collection and storage of NHS tissue in Scotland”  NHS Lothian Bioresource has been charged with overseeing the governance of all local collections of surplus tissue derived from NHS patients that are intended for research. This applies whether the tissue is stored in NHS or University premises. If your department is collecting, distributing and/or are storing tissue for research then this should be registered with the BioResource

Lothian BioResource is a central resource through which all collections of surplus patient samples and human tissue for research should be notified and channelled. Note that it is not intended or necessary that collections are physically stored within the custody of the BioResource. This resource helps  promote and facilitate research whilst establishing an appropriate governance structure to help ensure that all human tissues and tissue “banking” within Lothian and the University of Edinburgh is conducted in accordance with the applicable regulatory requirements.

Registering a research collection

To register a collection, researcher should read the SOP titled ‘Procedures for registering tissue collections’, complete the associated registration form and submit this to Craig Marshall (craig.marshall@nhslothian.scot.nhs.uk).

SOPs and Policies