Accessing the MCRC Biobank

Entrance to the OCRB

The MCRC Biobank is licensed by the Human Tissue Authority (licence number: 30004) and has been ethically approved as a research tissue bank by the South Manchester Research Ethics Committee (Ref: 22/NW/0237).

The Biobank holds what is known as generic ethics approval. This confers approval to anyone using samples from the MCRC Biobank, so researchers do not need to obtain their own ethical approval for relevant projects using Biobank samples. This centralised management of all ethics and regulatory requirements is of great advantage to researchers.

In the last decade, changes in human tissue research legislation mean that researchers are no longer allowed to have their own tissue collections under broad ethics approval. They must either be collected and used under project-specific ethics approval with defined endpoints (a new ethics approval is required for each project) or through a research tissue bank under licence from the HTA, which requires a robust infrastructure. The MCRC Biobank addresses this by taking care of all governance and administration centrally – ensuring researchers have easy access to biological research samples that are of guaranteed high quality.

Researcher pippetting samples

Access Process

The detailed process for applying to the MCRC Biobank is detailed in our Access Policy, which can be downloaded below.

You may contact us for access to existing banked samples or for prospective collection studies. Please contact us for a discussion in the first instance regarding your requirements and for the relevant application form for your work.

MCRC Biobank Access Policy Version 13.0 (PDF, 245 KB)

About the MCRC Biobank

Established in 2008, the MCRC Biobank has transformed the way biological samples are collected and supplied for ground-breaking cancer research projects within the Manchester Cancer Research Centre and beyond.

Information for Patients

Find out more about the sample biobanking process.

Human Tissue Governance

In addition to collecting samples for research, the MCRC Biobank also houses the Human Tissue Governance Team who look after all the regulatory compliance for use of human tissue in research.

Contact the MCRC Biobank