NIH Awards $6.5 Million to NDRI for Recovery of Human Tissues and Organs for Research
August 16 2018 - 9:07AM
Business Wire
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) have awarded $6,591,480
to the National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) to support
continued national leadership with the recovery and distribution of
human organs and tissues for medical research.
The five-year award of the Research Resource for Human Tissues
and Organs (RRHTO) Cooperative Agreement funds NDRI’s Human Tissue
and Organs for Research Resource (HTORR) Program. Established in
1987, the HTORR Program provides NDRI with NIH funding to support
research programs across multiple disciplines. It is through the
HTORR program that NDRI provides biomedical investigators with
donated normal and diseased human tissues and organs recovered from
a diverse donor pool using customized procurement, processing, and
preservation and distribution protocols. A core grant from the NIH
Office of the Director, Office of Research Infrastructure Programs
(ORIP) is supplemented with additional funding from the National
Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK),
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID),
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS),
National Eye Institute (NEI), National Institute of Arthritis and
Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases (NIAMS), and the National Heart,
Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI).
“NDRI’s mission is service to science through the provision and
distribution of human biospecimens to support research,” said Bill
Leinweber, President and CEO of NDRI. “In partnership with the NIH,
we are privileged to contribute to the research efforts of
scientists across the life-science disciplines.”
“Support from the NIH affirms the strong value of our mission,”
said Gene Kopen, PhD, NDRI’s Senior Vice President for Strategic
Initiatives and principal investigator for the HTORR grant. “As an
organization, NDRI has demonstrated the capacity to leverage this
support to enable a broad range of complex research projects
requiring human organs and tissues.”
A unique element of NDRI’s work supported through this agreement
is provision and distribution for neurological research through the
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). In
the last five years, NDRI has provided 884 neurological
biospecimens to 79 researchers, including normal and pathological
tissues representative of 20 distinct diseases, including ALS,
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, muscular dystrophy, pure
autonomic failure, Lewy body dementia, and spinal muscular atrophy.
Also, the NHLBI provides funds primarily for tissue collection,
storage and distribution in support of research into the rare lung
disease lymphangioleiomyomatosis (LAM), as well as other heart,
lung, and blood tissue research.
“NDRI is most grateful for support from the NIH which allows
NDRI to partner with scientists throughout the world to expand the
horizons of medical knowledge and discover new clues addressing
today’s most pressing disease challenges,” said Mary Hendrix, PhD,
President of Shepherd University and Chair of the NDRI Board of
Directors.
About NDRI
The National Disease Research Interchange (NDRI) is the nation’s
leading source of human tissues, cells and organs for scientific
research. A not-for-profit 501 (c) (3) organization founded in
1980, NDRI is funded in part by the National Institutes of Health,
public and private foundations and organizations, pharmaceutical
and biotechnology corporations. NDRI is a 24/7 operation that
partners with a nationwide network of over 130 tissue source sites
(TSS), including organ procurement organizations (OPOs), tissue
banks, eye banks, and hospitals. The TSS, are distributed
throughout the USA, in 45 states, with concentrations in major
metropolitan areas on both the east and west coasts. Their wide
geographic distribution allows NDRI to provide biospecimens from
donor populations with diverse demographics and also facilitates
the timely and efficient provision of fresh tissues directly to
researchers across the U.S. and around the world. By serving as the
liaison between procurement sources and the research community,
NDRI is uniquely positioned to support breakthrough advances and
discoveries that can affect advances in the treatment and cure of
human diseases.
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National Disease Research InterchangeEileen P.
FalchettaDirector, Marketing & Communications215-557-7361, ext.
239Efalchetta@ndriresource.orgwww.ndriresource.org