On this page, you will find information on how we can support you to access patient samples to accelerate your research.
The NIHR funds multiple initiatives to help the life sciences industry to access patient samples. We can help you to understand what support is available, what service is best suited to your research, and how to access it.
Our support will be most beneficial if you contact us at an early stage in your research journey.
The NIHR BioResource is a panel of over 200,000 highly characterised healthy volunteers and patients with common and rare diseases who have signed up to participate in health research. This resource supports access to genetic, phenotypic and metabolomic data. It was developed to accelerate discovery in disease research through a streamlined process.
There are currently 18 local BioResource Centres across England. Each BioResource Centre is connected to the corresponding local NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC).
By enabling access to well characterised groups of individuals by genotype and/or phenotype, the NIHR BioResource can help you identify and recruit individuals who are suitable for your clinical trial. Companies can also receive advice, support and feedback from key opinion leaders, clinicians and academics working in your field of research.
Industry partners can apply to the NIHR BioResource through:
A detailed cost for industry-led studies through commercial agreements can be found on the NIHR BioResource website.
The MRC-NIHR National Phenome Centre offers a wide range of services from broad profiling untargeted assays through to targeted assays. It is accessible by both academics and the life sciences industry. These services are offered on a collaborative project basis or via a fee-for-service basis.
This initiative is funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and the NIHR, led by Imperial College London and King's College London.
The NIHR part funds Genomics England, which is partnered with the NHS to provide whole genome sequencing data for the development of personalised and predictive healthcare solutions through the use of genomics.
They aim to equip researchers to find the causes of diseases and develop new treatments.
The NIHR is one of eight funders of the UKCRC Tissue Directory - a free online resource that catalogues the different types of human sample resources available across the UK, including biobank, cohort, biorepository, and clinical trial samples. It’s the only one of its kind that covers all regions, sample types and disease areas.
The UKCRC Tissue Directory has catalogued over 180 sample resources covering 136 diseases, and counting. Researchers can search the directory by gender, age, and disease, to either find banked samples or resources that can acquire bespoke collections.
This is just one example of how we support the life sciences organisations to deliver research in the UK. Visit the NIHR support for the life sciences industry page to discover our full range of support.
If you would like to access the samples described on this page, talk to our dedicated industry team to discuss your options.
