Inflammatory Bowel Disease Research

Dr. Jennie Clough - St. George's University Hospitals:

"I am so grateful to the team at the IBD BioResource, and the volunteers who took part, for enabling us to carry out my research.

"Using the information held by the IBD BioResource has helped us to target recruitment of patients from each of these groups – work that would otherwise have been time-consuming or impossible for us to do from our own patients at the trust."

Lab-Grown Blood Cells Trial

"We hope our lab-grown red blood cells will last longer than those that come from blood donors.

"If our trial, the first such in the world, is successful, it will mean that patients who currently require regular long-term blood transfusions will need fewer transfusions in future, helping transform their care."

iPSC Reprogramming Study

Ejaz Ansari - Study Director and Laboratory Manager, REPROCELL:

"IPSCs are made from everyday cells found in either blood, skin or urine. They have the ability to grow continuously and can be grown under special conditions in the lab to make other types of adult cells like eye, heart and brain cells.

"Our experience of working with the BioResource has been very positive. The team have been professional and friendly in their approach and attentive not only to the needs of the volunteers but also to our specific research requirements.

"This has enabled the successful generation of primary cell lines from all three donor donations."

Cell Type-Specific Roles Study

Dr. Dirk Paul - PHPC Group Leader:

"The BioResource has been excellent in providing a general framework of recall by genotype study: full end to end partnership from providing support to help refine the research protocol to study design, advice on what can and can’t be done, and then the recall itself.

"Without the BioResource, there is no capacity to do this type of research at all. We would have to do work in mice or in cells or other model systems, thereby trying to mimic the biological condition in humans."

Antibody Responses to AZD-1222 Immunisation

Dr. Michelle Linterman - Babraham Institute:

"Vaccines can provide protection against infection and disease through the production of pathogen-neutralizing antibodies. However, some people are less able to generate effective antibody responses upon immunization due to their genes.

"In this study, we used the NIHR COVID BioResource to access samples from healthy volunteers immunized with AZD-1222, to compare their antibody responses with those who have known genetic changes."

Leber Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON)

Professor Yu Wai Man - Professor of Ophthalmology at the University of Cambridge: 

“We are very fortunate to have access to the Rare Disease BioResource in this country. By capitalising on this unique resource, we are recruiting participants with genetic eyes diseases and using the latest technology to give us a clearer insight into how genetic changes can affect different parts of the eye and cause visual loss.”

You might also want to contact a local BioResource centre

See a full list of centres