The UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC) Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre: The UK’s Centre for facilitating the Usage of Human Samples for Medical Research

The UKCRC Tissue Directory and Coordination Centre was established to improve access to and utilisation of UK human tissue samples for medical research. The key output of the Centre is the creation of the UK’s first pan-disease Tissue Directory ( https://directory.biobankinguk.org/ ). Any researcher can search the Directory based on a series of simple key words including disease classification, age, sex, sample type, preservation details, quality indicators and datasets available. The Directory as of April 2017 contains 100 Bioresources. Researchers seeking fresh samples can also search for facilities that offer bespoke collection services. Future work of the Centre will be to explore greater standardisation of biobanking activities across the UK and to facilitate an inter-connected research infrastructure related to the use of human biosamples. Funding statement: The Centre is funded by a consortium, the UK Clinical Research Collaboration, and administered by the Medical Research Council, grant number: MR/M501748/1.