Re-establishing a brain tumour tissue collection bank in Leeds

A new Leeds based brain tumour Tissue Bank has been established in Leeds, meaning researchers working across Yorkshire and beyond will be better resourced to continue their world-renowned work.

The project will allow more collaboration locally and nationally, providing state-of-the-art resources to collect, examine and conserve fresh tissue samples.

The Tissue Bank, headed up by outstanding scientist and Associate Professor Dr Lucy Stead at the University of Leeds, is being jointly funded by OSCAR’s Paediatric Brain Tumour Charity and Yorkshire’s Brain Tumour Charity for three years. Brain tumour research requires samples on a regular basis, with the aim of improving treatments and outcomes for adults and children, as well as to move us a step closer to finding a cure.

The Leeds Tissue Bank is a collaboration between Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which will collect the tissue samples, and the University of Leeds, which will process, store and distribute the samples for use in medical research.

Dr Lucy Stead, Head of Glioma Genomics at the University of Leeds and the researcher responsible for opening the Leeds Tissue Bank, said, “To understand human disease, we need to learn from patient tissue. This tissue bank will facilitate a large range of brain cancer research in Leeds, and beyond, and help us advance towards finding a cure.”
 
The Tissue Bank launched in January 2021 for researchers across our region and beyond to access, giving hope to thousands of families experiencing this devastating disease. Our first brain tissue donation was made on 26th March 2021 by a patient undergoing surgery - a great achievement and first milestone!

Meet Steven!

Heading up this fantastic resource is Tissue Bank Manager, Steven Pollock. 
 

Steven told us:

"Having trained in Biomedical Science I’ve always been interested in the processes of disease. After graduating from Bangor University I joined the Breast Cancer Research team at The University of Leeds, where I helped establish the Breast Cancer Now Biobank. I followed this up by creating the York Tissue bank and am looking forward to bringing my knowledge back home to Leeds and being part of this fantastic project.

With the great team here I’m looking to build an outstanding resource for the Brain Cancer Research community. My hope is that we can accelerate the understanding in this area and make a real difference to those affected by brain cancer both now and in the future."

We are delighted to welcome Steven to his new role and look forward to seeing the positive impact having a local Tissue Bank in Leeds will have on brain tumour research across our region and beyond!

The impact of the Leeds Tissue Bank

Tissue taken from and processed by the Leeds Neuropathology Research Tissue Bank has been used in various projects by world-class researchers in Yorkshire and beyond. Read more about these projects in the publications below:

• GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data (Dr Lucy Stead et al in Neuro-Oncology, 2023)
• IDHwt glioblastomas can be stratified by their transcriptional response to standard treatment, with implications for targeted therapy (Dr Lucy Stead et al in bioRxiv, 2023)
• GBMdeconvoluteR accurately infers proportions of neoplastic and immune cell populations from bulk glioblastoma transcriptomics data (Dr Lucy Stead et al in bioRxiv, 2022)