The Human Biomaterials Resource Centre (HBRC) is an HTA-licensed biorepository (HTA research licence 12358) dedicated to the collection of appropriately consented, high quality human biomaterials, their processing, storage, and distribution to biomedical researchers. The HBRC resides within the purpose-built Advanced Therapies Facility (ATF), a building within the College of Medicine and Health at the University of Birmingham.
Samples are collected, processed and stored (or released) from patients in a variety of disease settings in response to local demand and research strategies, in order to facilitate existing research and enable future research areas to be developed. Samples may comprise tissue which is waste, or surplus to diagnosis, taken at the time of surgery or treatment, as well as additional samples taken specifically for research purposes, material left over from clinical trials, and control material.
The HBRC mainly carries out bespoke tissue collection, though it may be able to provide material from stock. The HBRC has access to local NHS diagnostic archives. All future and banked samples can be annotated, on request, with appropriate clinical data if available from medical records, in order to enable sample selection or analysis of results.
Although the HBRC is primarily a resource for local researchers within the University of Birmingham and local NHS Trusts, applications from other research groups and the commercial sector, both within the UK and overseas, are welcomed. The policy and procedures associated with the review of these applications, and the subsequent release of samples and associated data, are the same for both internal and external applicants.
All samples and associated data are released for research in a form which renders them anonymous to the researcher, and a per-application Human Biomaterials Transfer Agreement ensures that samples will only be used for the purposes approved in the application. In order to enhance the value of the HBRC collection, researchers are expected to make available to others any useful results following the completion of research studies, ideally through collaboration.
The HBRC has been functional since August 2010. Governance, management structures, and QMS are well established.
