The Availability of Human Tissue for Biomedical Research The Report and Recommendations of ECVAM Workshop 32

Robert Anderson, Michael O’Hare, Michael Balls, Madeleine Brady, Diana Brahams, Avril Burt, Christophe Chesné, Robert Combes, Ashley Dennison, Bernward Garthoff, Gabrielle Hawksworth, Eric Kalter, Ann Lechat, David Mayer, Vera Rogiers, Dariusz Sladowski, Jacqueline Southee, Jacki Trafford, Jan van der Valk and Anne-Marie van Zeller

This is the report of the thirty-second of a series of workshops organised by the European Centre for the Validation of Alternative Methods (ECVAM). The principal aim of the workshop was to formulate a set of guidelines to facilitate the safe, ethical and scientifically valid use of human tissues in research. This report summarises the workshop discussions on the ethical, legal, logistical and safety aspects relating to the supply and use of human tissue for research in Europe, and proposes a number of recommendations to improve the availability of non-transplantable and surplus surgical human tissue for research.