General Information

The Harvard Brain Tissue Resource Center is funded by the National Institute of Health (NIH) as part of the NeuroBioBank, a network of six National Brain Tissue Repositories (NBTRs). Tissue requests can be submitted to the NIH NeuroBioBank portal. A complete list of the samples included in the HBTRC brain collection is posted on the NeuroBioBank portal. All disbursements from the NeuroBioBank are made at no cost to the recipient laboratory.

Through the NeuroBioBank portal, investigators can request tissue from one or more NBTRs, thus enhancing the capability to assemble cohorts appropriate for their studies. All tissue diagnoses are confirmed by retrospective review of clinical records and a comprehensive neuropathological examination (see subpages). De-identified clinical and demographic data about each donor is made available to investigators requesting tissue. Note that protocols for tissue dissection, tissue processing and quality controls are standardized across NeuroBioBank NBTRs. At the same time, some NBTR-specific variations allow for more flexibility to adapt to investigators’ requests. Investigators requesting tissue must follow the Tissue Request Instructions including the Tissue Request Guidelines and Tissue Request Standards (PDF).