Estephan Arredondo Córdova
DTI Foundation, Spain
Title: Consolidated network in Spain to provide fresh human tissue for research purposes
Biography
Biography: Estephan Arredondo Córdova
Abstract
Donation and Transplant Institute (DTI) is a non-profit foundation, founded in Barcelona (Spain) in 2008, with the goal to support the researchers by providing human biological samples with high quality standards according to project needs. DTI has created a platform that is able to coordinate the donation of human organs, tissues and cells for biomedical research purposes, which encompasses strong collaborations with national and international procurement centers. Obtaining human biological samples, from living and deceased donors, is possible thanks to the organization of a hospital network which includes donor detection, evaluation, tissue procurement and tissue processing, if needed. Along with the sample donation, demographic information and donor clinic profile are obtained to develop an extensive data base, that allows researchers to access these facilities for scientific puposes. All projects are performed according to Spanish and European legal requirements in order ensure quality, safety and traceability of the generated material. DTI is currently involved in the obtainment of liver resections for hepatocytes isolation (7468 millons hepatocytes/gram) for research purposes (2009-present) achieving a viability average of 83.5%. Furthemore, DTI is participating in the development of projects related to obtaining whole and resected livers, kidneys, condrocits, heart valves, etc. Tissues are delivered with an average cold ischemia time of 16 hours in Europe. DTI contribution makes possible to provide key data from early stage discovery through pre-clinical research, drug safety evaluation, biomarker development, patient pre-selection and entry of novel compounds into the clinic.