Haematological cell research bank

• Research type

  Research Tissue Bank

• IRAS ID

  279411

• Research summary

  Haematological cell research bank

• REC name

  West of Scotland REC 4

• REC reference

  20/WS/0066

• Date of REC Opinion

  22 Jun 2020

• REC opinion

  Further Information Favourable Opinion

• Data collection arrangements

  Patients attending their physician having been diagnosed with blood disorders including acute and chronic leukaemia, as well as healthy donors as controls, may be asked to donate samples to the haematological (blood) cell biobank.

  Samples that are banked (stored long-term for future use) include:
  • Leukapheresis product (a white blood cell concentrate); blood; bone marrow; umbilical cord blood

  • Mouth (buccal) swabs, spit (saliva) samples, urine, liquid part of blood (serum or plasma)

  • On average, samples from up to 100 individuals may be banked annually for storage. Samples are stored, used or distributed as required, typically an individual sample will be used within 2 years of banking.

  • To date of application, samples from approximately 600 patients had been stored in the history of the bank

  All tissue is taken specifically for research after the donor's consent (authorisation) has been given in writing.

  Data stored or collected:

  • Age, sex, clinical results (e.g. diagnoses including cytogenetics, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), differential blood count, stage of disease, prescribed treatment and medicines, clinical markers of response) are collected and stored for linking with the tissue samples.

  • Data may be taken from electronic and paper health records when there is no direct contact with the donor.

  • Data is stored anonymised but linked in a password controlled electronic database. It is often necessary to match clinical outcomes for individual patients with the lab observations made when their sample is used in research projects in order to draw meaningful conclusions from the research data. For example the expression of a particular gene in a diagnosis sample may link with a particular prognosis or disease progression.

  • The infection status (e.g. HIV, HepB) of samples may be recorded, although samples known to be virally infected are destroyed without processing and not banked.

• Research programme

  The purpose of the bank is to understand and / or establish disease mechanisms relating to leukaemia and other blood cancers or diseases, in order to determine better strategies to control or eliminate disease. In order to fully understand disease process, normal controls will also be studied. Research output is published in scientific journals and discussed at scientific meetings, and informs clinical trial design of novel investigational agents. Collaborative research requires that some samples will be shared with national / international laboratories or commercial organisations via a nonprofit agreement whereby costs may be recovered for the processing of samples.

• RTBTitle

  Haematological cell research bank

• Establishment organisation

  NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

• Establishment organisation address

  Biorepository

  Laboratory Medicine Building, QUEH

  1345 Govan Road

  G51 4TF