The Online Biospecimen Catalogue (OBC) is an additional resource offered by NDRI that allows approved researchers to select from a variety of banked human organ and tissue samples from all body systems. The OBC is updated daily.
A username and password is required by investigators who are not registered with NDRI in order to view the OBC. Login information can be requested by clicking [here]. NDRI-approved researchers can click [here] to view the OBC and may also submit orders online.
It is important to note that the tissues offered via the OBC represent only a very small percentage of the tissues and organs that NDRI supplies to the research community every year. The vast majority of the biospecimens we supply are matched with donors according to researcher-specified protocols and sent directly to the investigator. They never appear in the OBC. These include samples shipped at 4ºC immediately after procurement, as well as snap-frozen, fixed and paraffin and OCT-embedded materials.
However, tissues from donors with rare diseases or HIV are frequently procured using standard protocols in the absence of a researcher actively requesting tissues. This is to ensure that opportunities are not lost to recover tissues representing diseases that may rarely, if ever, be encountered again.
A limited amount of the donor’s medical/social information is directly viewable in the OBC; further information, where available, can be requested.
Snap-frozen, frozen, fixed and paraffin and OCT-embedded biospecimens in the OBC include:
- Tissues encompassing all major body systems from a broad spectrum of
- normal donors
- donors with a variety of diseases
- Benign and malignant tumors and normal adjacent tissues
- Samples from individuals infected with HIV or with AIDS
- Specimens from donors with over 70 rare diseases, including representative DNA, cell lines and plasma samples
- Purified pancreatic islet cells
- Adult bone marrow
- Stem cells
- CD34+ cells derived from bone marrow or cord blood
- CD31+/45- endothelial stem cells derived from cord blood
- CD34+ cell depleted bone marrow
- Mesenchymal stem cells derived from bone marrow
In addition to the above, NDRI also has available:
- Cell lines, DNA, and medical history data from a large and very well characterized family-based collection of individuals with Type 1 diabetes and a variety of complications