Liverpool Research Eye Biobank

• Research type

  Research Tissue Bank

• IRAS ID

  322522

• Research summary

  Liverpool Research Eye Biobank

• REC name

  North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 2

• REC reference

  23/NS/0026

• Date of REC Opinion

  16 Mar 2023

• REC opinion

  Favourable Opinion

• Data collection arrangements

  The LREB collects mainly ocular tissues from living and cadaveric donors. We consent patients before their opertations or gain consent from someone in a qualifying relationsip to the deceased such as a next of kin. The samples are collected from the LUHFT and transferred to the University of Liverpool by the LREB technician. Here the samples are stored or distributed for research to researchers at the UoL but also externally.

• Research programme

  The LREB was one of the UK's first ever research eye banks dedicated solely to research; its overarching aim is to promote ophthalmic research, improve ocular treatments and reduce vision loss and blindness. Biobanks have become an essential resource for medical research underpinning many important advances to improve the health of human beings. Many significant advances in medical research have occurred due to the data provide by a Biobank. An Ophthalmic biobank provides data to support research into many eye conditions that cause loss of vision and blindness. In particular, an Ophthalmic biobank provides researchers with access to data/information/samples from a large number of conditions that cause loss of sight and potentially blindness. Samples that are usually taken from patients undergoing surgery for glaucoma, retinal or corneal disease can be stored and then made available to researchers investigating treatments for glaucoma, retinal diseases such as macular degeneration or corneal conditions such as keratoconus. This would enable researchers to use these samples to develop potential treatments. Importantly, samples in biobanks and the data derived from those samples can often be used by multiple researchers for cross purpose research studies.

• Storage license

  12020

• RTBTitle

  Liverpool Research Eye Biobank

• Establishment organisation

  University of Liverpool

• Establishment organisation address

  Department of Eye and Vision Sciences

  Institute of Life Course and Medical Sciences

  6 West Derby Street

  L7 8TX