In May Leah and Ellie from the Register team travelled to London to visit the MS Society Tissue Bank. The bank is based within Imperial College Division of Brain Sciences. On arrival they were met by Rory Türkmen Smith, the Tissue Bank Engagement Manager.
Tissue donations (brain and spinal cord) are welcomed from people with MS, including progressive MS, but also people who do not have MS as they can be used in comparison (known as control samples). The bank receives donations regularly from people wanting to support MS research after death; many donations are still being used decades after the donor has passed away, showing what a long-term legacy is left by those who choose to take part.
The donations are stored safely and respectfully, and should a researcher wish to work with the samples then they must go through an application process. This includes a Tissue Bank Peer Review Panel, made up of other MS researchers, Neuropathologists and people affected by MS.
Researchers look into areas such as the cells and molecules which can be found in the brain, and if those cells and molecules could be responsible for the damage shown in MS. It is hoped that this research will help find new effective treatments and even discover what causes MS. The lead researcher at the tissue bank is Dr Richard Nicholas, who is also the clinical lead of the UK MS Register.
The MS Society have been funding the tissue bank since 1998; the bank allows researchers to address questions which can only be answered by studying tissue from people with MS. So far, the bank has provided tens of thousands of tissue samples to hundreds of different research projects.
In future the UK MS Register hope to work more closely with the MS Tissue Bank to link up the vast amount of data held on people living with MS, with the data which can be gathered from donors when they pass away. Working together has the potential to increase our knowledge of MS in the UK today.
If you are interested in learning more, please visit: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/multiple-sclerosis-and-parkinsons-tissue-bank/
