Academic Researchers

Academic and Non-profit Researchers

Investigate the Possibilities
Over the past 26 years NDRI has provided more than 200,000 human organs and tissues to scientists at the USA’s leading research centers. Their findings have been reported in more than 2300 articles published in peer-reviewed journals. Using our unique matching software, NDRI efficiently matches donor referrals with researcher’s tissue requirements.

NDRI’s experience in providing anatomical gifts for research is unmatched.

• A wide range of normal and diseased tissues and organs are available shipped at 4ºC immediately after procurement, as well as snap-frozen, fixed and paraffin and OCT-embedded.

• Once an application for human tissue has been reviewed and approved, procurement protocols are developed to ensure tissues are prepared and shipped to meet investigators’ exact needs.
• Clinical information is available depending upon tissue source. The results of infectious disease screening and HLA typing may be provided upon request from transplant donors and for tissues recovered post mortem.
• NDRI provides tissues or organs only to researchers conducting bona fide research. Biospecimens from NDRI cannot be directly used in a commercial product or distributed to third parties.

• NDRI has developed unique programs to serve a number of specialized areas. These include:
• A project dedicated to the procurement of tissues (including cell lines, DNA and plasma) from donors with a wide variety of rare diseases,
• An initiative that specifically addresses the tissue needs of researchers studying HIV and viral hepatitis.
• The provision of isolated human pancreatic islet cells
• Supply of bone marrow and cord blood (including a variety of stem cells derived from these tissues).
• A process to obtain tissues with a very short death to preservation interval, making them ideal for genomic and proteomic research.
• Extensive service to the cancer research community with fresh, fixed and frozen tumor and NAT specimens, and paraffin blocks
• Tissue microarrays (TMAs). NDRI recently introduced prostate cancer and comprehensive pan-cancer TMAs.

• An Online Biospecimen Catalogue (OBC) is offered by NDRI to allow approved researchers to select from a variety of banked human organ and tissue samples. With the exception of rare diseases or HIV, the tissues offered via the OBC represent a very small percentage of the tissues and organs that NDRI provides to the research community every year. Most are matched with donors according to researcher-specified protocols and sent directly to the investigator. They never appear in the OBC. A username and password is required in order to view the OBC, only approved researchers can submit requests.
  • NDRI has 25 years of experience in getting it right: Our streamlined retrieval procedures and experience with regulations concerning privacy, informed consent and handling of biomaterials ensures rapid delivery of high-quality specimens.
  • Federal government funding: NDRI is the only independent major human tissue distribution organization providing anatomical gifts for research that receives major funding and oversight from federal agencies, in particular several institutes at the National Institutes of Health

  For further information see the Frequently Asked Questions

  To find out more about our Application Process or to Submit an Application please [Click Here]

  NDRI serves scientists at top research centers nationally, including:

• Baylor College of Medicine
• Boston University School of Medicine
• Case-Western Reserve University
• Cedars-Sinai Medical Center
• Columbia University
• Duke University
• Emory University
• Georgetown University
• Joslin Diabetes Center and the Harvard Medical School
• Kresge Eye Institute
• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Mt. Sinai School of Medicine
• National Institutes of Health
• Northwestern University Medical School
• Pennsylvania State University
• Purdue University
• Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
• Rutgers University
• Stanford university
• State University of New York
• Tufts University
• University of California
• University of Chicago
• University of Pennsylvania
• U.S. Army
• U.S. Department of Agriculture
• U.S. Food and Drug Administration
• Vanderbilt University
• Washington University School of Medicine
• Wilmer Eye Institute and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
• Wistar Institute
• Yale University