Tayside Biorepository punching above its weight in latest accreditation

The reaccreditation forms part of the regular large-scale review process of the four main Scottish repositories - Tayside, Grampian, Lothian, and Glasgow - which together operate as a national network. 

This latest review highlighted Tayside’s standards of practice as amongst the best in the country. The process assessed governance, consent procedures, and operational standards, ensuring they remain equivalent to those required by the Human Tissue Authority. 

Sharon King, Human Tissue Governance Manager for the Tayside Biorepository said, “This renewal confirms our standards of best practice are comparable with the rest of the UK”.

Although the Tayside team is small, the scale of activity it supports is significant. The Biorepository punches well above its weight, currently supporting a portfolio of thirty projects including 10 active clinical trials, alongside a wide range of PhD projects and hospital-based research.

Researchers identify required Biorepository support early on within the pre-award stage of clinical trial development, allowing compliance, tissue handling, storage, and services to be costed and built into applications from the outset. The team supports both commercial and non-commercial studies, including major oncology trials.

Alongside reaccreditation, the Tayside Biorepository has developed a new national portal designed to streamline governance and access processes. The online platform provides a single-entry point for researchers seeking to apply for tissue access, strengthening consistency and transparency across the network. 

It also offers a pipeline of support to provide enhanced service provision including sample preparation, histology, biomarker analysis and genomics and health data science. 

For the Faculty of Health, and wider University - the renewed accreditation provides assurance that research involving clinical samples continues to operate within a robust, nationally benchmarked framework - enabling studies that depend on safe, ethical, and well-governed access to human tissue.