Share organs tissues and samples
By cooperating with other researchers or biobanks, you can utilize animal and human organs, tissues and samples that would otherwise not be used. This way, you use already existing material and thus reduce the number of laboratory animals and invasive procedures.
As a researcher, you often use only one or two organs from an animal in your experiment and discard the rest of the body. Many organs could be used by other researchers instead of being left unused. By sharing organs, tissues and samples with other researchers, the number of animals used in experiments can be reduced.
There are also biobanks that collect, store and provide samples from both animals and humans.
We collect information about services and resources that help researchers share organs, tissues and samples from animals or humans.
Resources for sharing of samples from animals
Sharing animal samples from one’s research is a valuable tool for reducing the number of laboratory animals used in research. Animatch is an international organisation that works towards sharing of animal samples. Through the Animatch online sharing-platform you can connect and share organs and tissue with other researchers. You can register online or contact Animatch for a customized in-house solution for internal exchange at your research facility or to make an exchange between 2-3 organisations.
Today there is no equivalent to this in Sweden, but there may be possibilities to share material both within and between institutions such as universities and hospitals. You can always investigate this possibility at your workplace.
Biobanks
One way of reducing the use of laboratory animals in medical research is to use human or animal tissue and samples that have been saved in biobanks. These samples are often the result of medical care where the patient has provided biological samples. By using already existing samples in one’s research, the need for laboratory animals can be minimized and new samples can be accessed without invasive methods.
BBMRI-ERIC
BBMRI-ERIC is a European research infrastructure for biobanks. This website gathers information about biobanks in Europe that are willing to share samples and data from humans or animals and who want to cooperate with other researchers. Using their search engine, you can choose different filters such as country, type of tissue sample, human or animal origin and what disease you are interested in.
Biobank Sweden
Sweden has over 150 million biobank samples from humans of different ages. A sample can contain blood, urine or saliva but also cells and tissues. Biobank samples can be used in research if there is an expressed consent and an approved ethical application. Read more about biobank samples and research at Biobank Sweden’s website.
Revision date: 2025-05-07