Stand up

for spinal cord injury

We collect, process & store thousands of specimens from patients.

This number is constantly growing.

Few traumas to the human body are as suddenly and permanently devastating as spinal cord injuries (SCI). SCI patients endure lifelong loss of movement, sensation, bowel, bladder, and sexual function. Estimates indicate that the incidence of catastrophic SCI is approximately 750,000 new cases each year around the world.

International efforts have tremendously increased our understanding of the neuropathology of SCI and have shed much insight into the acute and chronic pathophysiologic processes that inhibit neural regeneration and functional recovery. While much basic science research has been done to elucidate the complex pathophysiology of acute SCI, virtually all of this research has been conducted on animal models. However, due to important differences between the pathophysiology and pathobiology of human and animal SCI, further study of the effects of this devastating injury in humans is clearly warranted. As Francesco Marincola wrote in his 2011 Editorial on “The Trouble with Translational Medicine” in the Journal of Internal Medicine, “Translational research is caught in a feedback cycle whereby complex multi-factorial disease is confronted without sufficient understanding of human pathophysiology”. Increasing this understanding of the human pathophysiology of spinal cord injury is a core mission of the Biobank.

We have established the International Spinal Cord Injury Biobank in which biospecimens from individuals who have sustained an SCI will be curated and stored for research purposes.

INVENTORY SNAPSHOT

340

Participants
.

2,075

Paraffin-Embedded Blocks

20

Injured Spinal Cords
(with in vivo & ex vivo MRI)

2,600

Pre-stained, Digital Tissue Sections

30,654

Cerebrospinal Fluid Aliquots
.

13,488

Plasma Aliquots

29,060

Serum Aliquots
.

2,400

PAXgene Blood RNA Tubes

 

SCROLL DOWN TO SEE OUR CURRENT

biospecimen availability

AND TO

request samples

BIOSPECIMEN AVAILABILITY

SAMPLE SPECTRUM

ISCIB procures specimens from a variety of SCIs, including:

ASIA Impairment Scores A through D, and uninjured | Cervical, Thoracic, & Lumbar Injuries | Acute, Sub-acute, & Chronic Injuries | Multiple Timepoints Post-SCI

Contact us for more specific biospecimen availability

requesting samples

Sample request PROCEDURE

  1. Request an initial consultation with the ISCIB Program Manager / ISCIB Director using the button below.

  2. If necessary, submit a study amendment to your local ethics / institutional review board to include human ISCIB specimens in the proposed research project.

  3. Complete the ISCIB Biospecimen Request Form provided by the ISCIB Program Manager and await review by the Operational and Scientific Access Committee (OSAC). This generally takes 2-4 weeks, or longer if amendments are requested by OSAC.

  4. If approved by OSAC, a Material Transfer Agreement template is reviewed and executed between institutions.

  5. Once executed, a test shipment of up to ten (10) specimens is released to your lab for piloting your experimental procedures using ISCIB’s human materials.

  6. Pilot data is returned to the ISCIB Program Manager for review by OSAC before the remainder of your request’s approved specimens are released.

BIOSPECIMEN SOURCES

Contact us to add your study's remnant materials to ISCIB's growing inventory.

ENROLMENT SITES

  • Vancouver

    Vancouver General Hospital
    Vancouver Coastal Health

  • Toronto

    St. Michael's Hospital

  • London

    London Health Science Centre – Victoria Campus

  • Montreal

    Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur

  • Halifax

    QEII Health Sciences Centre

  • San Francisco

    Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital (UCSF)

  • Pittsburgh

    University Pittsburgh Medical Center

  • Philadelphia

    Thomas Jefferson University

  • Columbus

    Wexner Medical Center Ohio State University

  • Boston

    Spaulding Rehabilitation

  • Chicago

    Northwestern University

  • Atlanta

    Shepherd Center

  • Los Angeles

    Keck Medicine, University of Southern California

  • Omaha

    University of Nebraska Medical Center

  • Albuquerque

    University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center

Become an enrolment site

TESTIMONIALS

 

“It is important that the ISCIB has been able to provide us with a range of tissue samples from acute to chronic stages of SCI. This will enable us to determine the spatiotemporal expression profile of these matrix proteins and therefore determine the optimal time points for therapeutic targeting in humans.”

-Elizabeth Bradbury, Professor, King’s College London, United Kingdom

“The specimens have not only enabled us to complete our study on fibrotic scar tissue formation, but most importantly led to the generation of important results. The study of human tissue from a number of patients and different time points after injury has allowed us to investigate the extend and distribution of fibrotic scar tissue. The detailed investigation of post injury timepoints and a large number of cases forms the basis for the timing and specificity of any intervention strategy.”

-Christian Göritz, Associate Professor, Karolinska Institute, Sweden