A specific kind of biobank focused on the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of human tissue samples (typically solid tissue specimens from surgical or post-mortem sources), governed under tissue-banking regulation in the relevant jurisdiction.

ByCASRAI Editorial Board

· Last updated 10 Jul 2026

Examples

Worked examples

Is an instance
A cancer tissue bank holding tumour blocks and matched normal-tissue samples for downstream genomic studies.
Is an instance
A brain bank for neurodegenerative disease research.

Counter-examples

Looks similar, but isn't

Not an instance
A storage facility for industrial chemical samples is not a tissue bank.
Not an instance
A blood-donation centre primarily for transfusion is not, in the research sense, a tissue bank.

Editorial commentary

Tissue banks are regulated under tissue legislation: in the UK, the Human Tissue Act 2004 administered by the Human Tissue Authority; in the EU, the Tissues and Cells Directives; in the US, FDA regulations and CAP/AABB accreditation. They typically operate alongside hospital pathology services, with strict chain-of-custody and consent governance. Tissue banks often hold blocks, slides, fresh-frozen specimens, and matched clinical data. Distinct from biobanks that focus on blood/DNA, tissue banks are usually more specialised and disease-area-focused.

References

Human Tissue Authority (UK), 'HTA Codes of Practice'.
EU Directive 2004/23/EC and amendments, 'Tissues and Cells Directives'.

Also known as

Research tissue bank

Machine-readable encodings

Use in your systems

JATS XML <role> element

xml

<role vocab="credit"
      vocab-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/"
      vocab-term="Tissue bank"
      vocab-term-identifier="https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tissue-bank" />

Schema.org DefinedTerm (JSON-LD)

json

{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "DefinedTerm",
  "@id": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tissue-bank",
  "name": "Tissue bank",
  "identifier": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tissue-bank",
  "description": "A specific kind of biobank focused on the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of human tissue samples (typically solid tissue specimens from surgical or post-mortem sources), governed under tissue-banking regulation in the relevant jurisdiction.",
  "inDefinedTermSet": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/domain/data-infrastructure#set",
  "url": "https://casrai.org/dictionary/term/tissue-bank",
  "sameAs": [
    "Research tissue bank"
  ],
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "publisher": {
    "@id": "https://casrai.org/#organization"
  },
  "dateModified": "2026-07-10T02:06:21",
  "inLanguage": "en"
}

Referenced across the research world

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