ReproTech, Ltd. has agreed to facilitate collaboration between fertility and cancer centers within its network of facilities and the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI), to provide surgical tissue for use in studies to understand human disease.
Staff at participating medical facilities will be provided with NDRI information and consent forms to distribute to their patients who are interested in donating tissues recovered from surgeries that would otherwise be discarded. These patients, through NDRI’s Private Donor Program, will have the opportunity to register as tissue donors for medical research. NDRI will work to maximize all researchers’ access and opportunity to receive donated samples. By working with many researchers, rather than only with a single institution, the chances of new treatments, or cure, is heightened dramatically. NDRI accepts tissue for cancer research, common or rare disease research and also provides healthy samples for scientists to use as ‘control’ samples to compare against affected ones. Tissue may be donated from any type of surgery.
“As scientists continue to advance in finding cures for human disease, donation to benefit research is critical. ReproTech is pleased to work with NDRI and our participating facilities to contribute to the ultimate goal of disease cures”, says Brent Hazelrigg, CEO of ReproTech.
“The collaboration between NDRI and Reprotech may ultimately benefit the lives of millions. NDRI has worked with over 5000 scientists in the United States as well as throughout the globe. When patients have the option to donate these tissues after surgery, they are provided with the ability to potentially advance medical science and contribute to the development of new treatments and cures”, says Lee Ducat, President of NDRI.
The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) was founded in 1980 by Lee Ducat, in response to requests from the biomedical community for human tissues to corroborate their animal studies. As a non-profit corporation funded primarily by the National Institutes of Health, NDRI is dedicated to the procurement, preservation and distribution of human cells, tissues and organs to researchers studying diseases such as HIV/AIDS, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, retinitis pigmentosa, Alzheimer’s disease and over 100 other diseases. Since 1980, NDRI has supplied over 300,000 tissue samples to over 5,000 researchers in the United States and internationally. To learn more about NDRI, or about registering as a donor, please call 800-222-NDRI(6374) or visit www.ndriresource.org.