Erasmus MC : Protocol to request frozen tissue samples

Contact and discuss your plans with the head of the Tissue Bank Dr P.H.J. Riegman by e-mail. Try to fill out the questionnaire before the contact, this can speed up the communication.

Or Search and request samples on-line from the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank. After registration, you can search on tissue type, diagnosis, age, and gender by selecting terms from drop boxes. From the acquired selection of available tissues you can select tissues by inspecting the histological image and judging the comments. Then the selected tissues can be ordered On-Line by filling out a proposal questionnaire and sending these specifics to the head of the Erasmus MC Virtual Tissue Bank. If tissue samples originate from the same patient they are in a field of equal blue color.

Note that the search engine is still under development. This results for instance in the use of Dutch terms in the diagnosis terms.

Rules:

Tissue samples can be selected and requested for scientific medical research with the same application only if the following conditions are met:

1.  You must be employed as a researcher by the Erasmus MC.
2. You must be familiar with the Code Proper Secondary Use of Human Tissue developed by the FMWV.
3. You must be able to give an exact description of all planned experiments involving the tissue samples.
4. The planned experiments need to be of sufficient quality to spend the valuable tissue samples on, which is to be decided by the Tissue Bank committee.
5. You must have sufficient expertise at your disposal to perform the planned experiments.
6. You must have permission of the Medical Ethics Commission METC to execute the planned experiments. 
       

If all above terms are met, the tissue samples can be transferred by signature of a transfer agreement. After the experiments have been performed the tissues have to be returned to the Erasmus MC tissue bank.



For purposes of budgeting project proposals involving tissue samples, the costs per tissue sample are calculated on € 254,- including standard sample collection, storage, administration and retrieval. These costs include the development of infrastructure, redundantly stored tissues, hidden costs, development of new collection strategies, inclusion of older collections and organization in networks.

The online submission or sending of a filled out proposal questionnaire to the Head of the Erasmus MC Tissue Bank will result in an evaluation of the proposal by the Tissue Bank Committee:

· Head Erasmus MC virtual tissue bank.
· Specialized pathologist responsible for the tissue group.
· Research specialist(s) responsible for the tissue group.

The requested tissues in the Erasmus MC Virtual Tissue Bank will be issued upon a positive evaluation and if the application complies with the rules and regulations involved in scientific research with patient material. A standard Material Transfer Agreement has to be signed by both supplying and receiving parties.