NIH Neurobiobank Tissue Access Guidance

Guidance for Completing your NBB Tissue Request

Planning Your Tissue Request
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If you are not sure precisely what tissue, tissue regions, or quantities are best for your
research project, please submit a request for help to the NIH NeuroBioBank email
address before completing the on-line request.
The Request Form requires you to provide a detailed rationale for 1) number of subjects
requested, 2) amount of tissue requested per subject, and 3) number of brain regions
requested. Please see the Acceptable Tissue Amount Guidelines (below) to plan your
request.
If you have not performed a pilot study in human tissue, your first request should be for
tissue to perform a pilot study using your proposed methods.

Completing Your NBB Tissue Request Form
1. Complete all applicable fields. Required fields must be completed in order for the system
to accept the request. Incomplete information will delay the review of your request,
especially Specimen Shipping Information.
2. Request Name should be a short unique descriptor of your request.
3. Requested Specimens lists all of the specimens you selected for your study (using the
specimen search). This list must contain all the specimens you are interested in
obtaining.
a. For each specimen listed, you must enter the amount of each specimen needed
for your study using the “Amount Requested” field. Please follow the Acceptable
Tissue Amount Guidelines (below) when submitting your request. A detailed
rationale must be provided for any deviations from these guidelines.
b. “Unaffected Control” are subjects with no known psychiatric or neurological
diagnoses.
c. If you wish to adjust your list of selected specimens, click the “Edit Requested
Specimen(s)” option. The specimen search will appear. You can add/remove
specimens. Once you are finished updating your selection, click the “Return to
Request” option at the top of the search. The request form will be updated with
your new specimen list.
4. Request Details
a. The “Title of Research Plan” will appear at the top of your MTA.
b. Concisely describe the request according to the instructions. If you are
requesting multiple anatomical regions per subject, the rationale must be clearly
indicated here.
c. List each type of assay or method to be used with the requested tissue. Include
the amount of tissue needed for each assay/method per subject.
i Example: “qPCR, 2mg grey matter per subject.”
d. Indicate whether you or your direct collaborators have used the method(s)
proposed in this request with human postmortem tissue before.

If the answer is “No,” then this request should be for tissue for pilot
studies.
e. Provide a rationale for the number of subjects requested. Acceptable rationales
include power analyses, or accepted standards in the field (with appropriate
citations).
i

Determining Your Tissue Needs
The table below provides guidelines for generally acceptable amounts of tissue that can be
requested for different types of studies. Each of the tissue amounts below will provide sufficient
material to perform each type of methodology listed. These values were derived in collaboration
with researchers who have successfully performed each methodology using human brain tissue
If your methodology is not listed below, please include a detailed rationale supporting the amount
of tissue you are requesting.
If your methodology is below, but you require more tissue than is indicated, you must include a
detailed rationale supporting your request outside of the acceptable range.
Please note that multiple areas, such as hippocampal subfields and thalamic and hypothalamic
nuclei, are small, and many investigators are interested in studying these regions. As such, for
certain methodologies, the NBB may indicate that a tissue amount which differs from the below
guidelines will be provided.
If you need guidance on any issues related to tissue amount guidelines, please contact the NIH
NeuroBioBank at neurobiobank@mail.nih.gov.
Method
FACS sorting with NeuN
HITS-CLIP
Immunoblot
Immunohistochemistry

Accepted Tissue Amount/Region/Subject
≤ 100mg of gray matter
≤ 300mg
≤ 10mg of tissue per protein examined
Sufficient tissue for ≤ 6 sections for
immunolabeling
(May be provided as free floating sections,
formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded sections, fixed
tissue blocks, or paraffin-embedded tissue
blocks dependent upon region requested and
brain bank)

Mass Spec:
Simple Mass Spec with no
enrichment or multidimensional
fractionation

≤ 15mg

Mass Spec with sucrose density
gradient based sub-cellular
enrichment
Mass Spec with multidimensional
separation with or without isobaric
labeling tags (eg., TMT or iTRAQ)
Co-IP with Mass Spec
Mass Spec for post-translational
modifications
Microarray
qPCR
RNASeq
Total gray or white matter
Single-cell
Slide-Based Assays (e.g., in situ
hybridization, laser-capture
microdissection)

≤ 350mg

≤ 150mg

50 – 500mg
50 – 500mg
≤ 5mg
≤ 5mg
≤ 60mg
≤ 100mg
Sufficient tissue for ≤ 6 sections per condition