The ms and pd tissue bank at imperial college london

The development of new therapeutic approaches to inhibit the initiation and progression of neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative disorders is highly dependent on a detailed understanding of the molecular mechanisms leading to damage within the central nervous system. Such an understanding can only truly be gained by studying the human tissues that are affected by the disease mechanism, followed by experimental approaches. The Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinson’s Tissue Bank at Imperial College was set up to provide a national collection of MS and PD tissues, based on a prospective donor scheme. Brain, spinal cord and other tissues are retrieved rapidly after death, processed, characterised and stored, before being sent out to research teams around the world. The Tissue Bank represents one of the major sources of post-mortem human brain and spinal cord material for research in the world, supplying tissue via an open access peer reviewed system to both academia and industry. It has proven to be a vital component of the international fight against these devastating diseases and we are now applying for funding to maintain this important infrastructure for the next 5 years. We will continue to build on the existing foundation by embracing the latest developments in MS and PD research so that researchers are supplied with the well characterised human tissues that they need for carrying out excellent discovery research.