Research Resource for Human Organs and Tissues

The Human Tissue and Organ Research Resource (HTORR) is a division of the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI), a not-for-profit NIH-funded organization whose mission is to provide the biomedical research community with human tissues for research. The requirements for human biospecimens continue to evolve in tandem with complexity of scientific questions and experimental methodologies that investigators desire to pursue. To meet this requirement, HTORR utilizes a project-specific approach and a substantial network of tissue source sites (TSS) to provide investigators with the opportunity to obtain a broad range of normal and diseased human biospecimens for their studies. HTORR’s expertise involves a five-pronged approach to creating a reliable research resource to meet this emergent need for investigators.

HTORR provides: 1) expert customer service and 24/7 support for investigators, 2) a solution-oriented approach for investigators via the opportunity to develop project-specific protocols for each project, 3) access to human biospecimens from all body systems, 4) ongoing outreach efforts via multiple platforms to increase awareness of the resource, and 5) industry best practices and standards regarding the donation of human tissue for research. Implementation of this plan will ensure uninterrupted service of high quality, well annotated normal and diseased human biospecimens to investigators from an established network of tissue source sites, in concert with the development and implementation of innovative, large scale initiatives for the biomedical research community.

Grant Number: 5U42OD011158-35
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: Thomas Bell