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Tissue Banking

Research: In 2006 the Wilson Disease Association formed a partnership with the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI), to promote Wilson disease research. If you, or someone you know, would like to participate in this valuable tissue banking program.

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Introduciton to NDRI

The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) was founded in 1980 by its president, Lee Ducat, a Philadelphia mother of a diabetic child. After founding the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, Ms. Ducat formed NDRI in response to requests from the biomedical community for human tissues to corroborate their animal studies. As a non-profit corporation funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, NDRI is dedicated to the procurement, preservation, and distribution of human cells, tissues, and organs to researchers studying diseases such as HIV/AIDS diabetes, cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa, Alzheimer's disease, and over 100 other diseases. Since 1980, NDRI has supplied over 300,000 tissue samples to over 5,000 researchers in the United States and internationally.

NDRI works one-on-one with researchers to provide tissues and preservation procedures that meet their needs. Likewise, NDRI works with a national network of eye and tissue banks, organ procurement organizations, and hospital pathology departments. Through their cooperation, NDRI is able to supply non-diseased control tissues, as well as diseased samples from a variety of surgical, transplant, and autopsy procedures.

Researchers requesting human tissue from NDRI are screened through an extensive review process. Protocols are reviewed by NDRI's Feasibility Review Committee, a panel of eminent scientists who determine scientific merit and feasibility of each request. Committee members include experts in pathology, clinical medicine, basic biomedical research, and human tissue preservations from academia, the federal government, and the private sector. Only tissues benefiting basic research are provided. No commercial product development projects are served by NDRI.

An NDRI coordinator is available 24-hours per day by calling
1-800-222-NDRI (6374).

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