Proceedings of the human tissues conference, House of Lords, 20 October 2009: Introduction

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Proceedings of the human tissues conference, House of Lords, 20 October 2009: Introduction Margaret Clotworthy

Received: 16 June 2010 / Accepted: 16 July 2010 / Published online: 8 September 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010

Abstract On 20 October 2009, scientists and politicians gathered in the House of Lord to discuss the barriers medical researchers face when attempting to access surplus human tissues. Presently, such tissues, including those surplus to requirements for diagnosis after surgery, are all too often incinerated because patients’ permission has not been sought for them to be used in medical research. A similar situation arises where organs which have been donated for transplant are unsuitable for donation. As a consequence of the conference, the Human Tissues Working Party was established to enable the discussions which began so fruitfully at the conference to continue, and to allow delegates, and participants who have joined subsequently, to present a unified case in submissions to public consultations, for example. Keywords Drug safety testing  Human tissues working party  Animal tests

Last October, more than 50 scientists and politicians gathered in the House of Lords to examine the hurdles facing scientists who require access to human tissues in order to carry out their research, and to find possible

M. Clotworthy (&) Safer Medicines Trust, PO Box 62720, SW2 9FQ London, UK e-mail: [email protected]

solutions. The conference was co-sponsored by patient safety charity Safer Medicines Trust and human tissues and services providers Biopta and Asterand. Stakeholders, including scientists from academia, biotech, the pharmaceutical industry, pathology departments and of course, biobanks, spoke enthusiastically on a range of subjects. Cell and Tissue Banking reported on the conference on 13 December (Clotworthy 2009). The essential role of human tissues in medical research, whether basic research or drug and medical device development and testing, was explored, as were the benefits of using human tissue-based systems over other models. The role of pathologists as patient advocates, and the essential but oft-overlooked and under-funded role of pathology departments in facilitating and participating in research received much attention. Delegates also listened with great interest to biobank presentations on the pitfalls associated with establishing a tissue bank and the institutional challenges involved in hosting one. Ethical issues, and how human tissue-based research is perceived by patients, were also examined, while Dolores Baldasare’s presentation, representing the US International Institute for the Advancement of Medicine, added a valuable international dimension. Lord McColl, to whom we are grateful for hosting the event, also contributed a surgeon’s perspective to the lively discussions which ensued. We are delighted to present the Proceedings of the Conference, and would like to thank all of the speakers who were able to contribute papers. We are

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