The Human Tissue Resource Centre (HTRC) is based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital and was set up in 2006 by Barts and The London NHS Trust and Queen Mary’s then School of Medicine and Dentistry, in response to the introduction of the Human Tissue Act 2004 (the Act).

Barts Health NHS Trust holds a License with the Human Tissue Authority (HTA) for the collection, storage and use of human tissue for research. The main role of the HTRC is to ensure that tissue banks and tissue collection centres that store human tissue for research purposes comply with the Act and enhance the research infrastructure of both Barts Health and Queen Mary.

The Licence applies only to those groups which have registered with the HTRC. At present over 25 tissue collection centres operating within Barts Health and Queen Mary are registered with the HTRC. These centres are storing human organs, tissues and cells for research purposes other than for a specific ethically approved research project.

If your department is collecting or distributing surplus tissue for research and/or are storing tissue that is not connected to an ethically approved research project and you have not informed the HTRC, then you must do so immediately.

Please contact the Designated Individual and HTRC Manager Katie Ersapah for more information: k.ersapah@nhs.net or 020 346 57306.