PKD bioresource bank

The PKD Charity Bioresource Bank was established at UCL Centre for Nephrology, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust in 2011 and is supported by an annual grant from the PKD Charity.

We want this unique bioresource to become crucial to laboratory research in the UK. The acceleration of PKD research depends on well-characterized human PKD and age-matched normal control tissues, cell lines and animal models that faithfully recapitulate the genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of PKD.

The PKD Bioresource Bank contains more than 8,000 cell, tissue, and fluid samples of autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD), plus age-matched control samples suitable for research purposes. To date, researchers from University and Kings’ Colleges London, the Institute of Child Health/Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Royal Free London, and Addenbrooke's Cambridge, have submitted successful applications for Bioresource Bank materials in frozen, live cell and/or fixed sectioned states to use for PKD research projects.

If you are a researcher in the UK and want more details of samples available, please contact us. Please note that, owing to Human Tissue Act regulations, we cannot send samples outside the UK.

Kidneys and livers from ADPKD and ARPKD patients can be donated to the Bioresource Bank. If you or a child is about to have a kidney or liver removed, please contact us immediately with the name of your surgeon and hospital. Professor Pat Wilson, the chair of our Research Advisory Board, will then contact the surgeon to make the arrangements.