Establishment of human tissue banks

Mounting interest in Europe over the incorporation of the human biological model in the laboratory has been fuelled by scientific advances and the much improved accessibility to human tissue. The collection of tissue is complicated by a host of ethical considerations and lack of public awareness of the benefits of donation to research and education. In the United States, the International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine (IIAM) has been successful in networking the cooperation of organ banks, tissue banks and hospitals, to collect otherwise discarded anatomical gifts with consent from the donor or donor's next of kin for medical research applications. IIAM is a non-profit, non-transplant anatomic bank that is provisionally licensed in the state of New York--one of the first states to implement comprehensive licensing procedures. Over the last year, IIAM has been serving a growing number of investigators in Europe with both fresh and frozen preparations. However, the various logistical problems in trans-Atlantic transportation and economic considerations warrant the exploration of establishing a satellite bank in Europe that would entail a more efficient and cost effective service to this region. This permanent facility would have access to IIAM's frozen inventory of tissue and tissue-derived protein samples, and would serve to facilitate the provision of fresh tissue, cells and slices to European researchers requiring such materials for their studies.