title: The establishment of a network of European human research tissue banks.
abstract: This is a report of a workshop held on the establishment of human research tissue banking which was held in Levi, Finland 21-24 March 2002. There were 21 participants from 7 European countries. This meeting was attended by representatives from academia, research tissue banks and from the Biotech and Pharmaceutical Industries. The principal aim of the workshop was to find a way to progress the recommendations from ECVAM workshop 44 (ATLA 29, 125-134, 2001) and ECVAM workshop 32 (ATLA 26, 763-777, 1998). The workshop represented the first unofficial meeting of the European Network of Research Tissue Banks (ENRTB) steering group. It is expected that in the period preceding the next workshop the ENRTB steering group will co-ordinate the ethical, legislative and organisational aspects of research tissue banking. Key issues dealt with by the Levi workshop included the practical aspects of sharing expertise and experiences across the different European members. Such collaboration between research tissue banks and end users of such material seeks to ultimately enable shared access to human tissue for medical and pharmaco-toxicological research while maintaining strict adherence to differences in legal and ethical aspects related to the use of human tissue in individual countries.
authors.affiliation: UK Human Tissue Bank, De Montfort University, Innovation Centre, Oxford StreetLeicester, LE1 5XY, UK(samantha@ukhtb.org)
authors.forename: Samantha
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Orr
authors.forename: Eliane
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Alexandre
authors.forename: Brain
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Combes
authors.forename: Lueder M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Fels
authors.forename: Neil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gray
authors.forename: Ann-Cathrine
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Jönsson-Rylander
authors.forename: Heikki
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Helin
authors.forename: Jukka
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Koistinen
authors.forename: Teija
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oinonen
authors.forename: Lysiane
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Richert
authors.forename: Rivka
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ravid
authors.forename: Jarmo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salonen
authors.forename: Tambet
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Teesalu
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Thasler
authors.forename: Jacki
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Trafford
authors.forename: Jan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Van Der Valk
authors.forename: Rudiger
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Von Versen
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Weiss
authors.forename: Chris
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Womack
authors.forename: Timo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ylikomi