To bank and provide high quality biospecimens for neurological disorders to the research community.

Access to clinical biospecimens and cell sources is an oft cited challenge to the progress in research on neurological disorders. The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) is committed to providing high quality biospecimens for NINDS-mission relevant disorders.

The NINDS human biospecimen repository, BioSpecimen Exchange for Neurological Disorders (BioSEND), acquires, maintains, and distributes NINDS biospecimen collections for biomarker research in neurological disorders. The NINDS Human Cell and Data Repository (NHCDR) acquires, maintains, and distributes fibroblast, induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC), and edited iPSC lines from neurological disorders. Samples from BioSEND and NHCDR are distributed to academic and commercial entities globally to advance research from basic to translational and clinical stages.

At BioSEND, current collections include Parkinson’s Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Huntington’s Disease, Myalgic Encephalomyelitits/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Frontotemporal Dementia, Spinocerebellar Ataxia, and Traumatic Brain Injury as well as unaffected controls. Biospecimen types include DNA, RNA, plasma, serum, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), whole blood, urine, stool, PBMCs, and saliva. At NHCDR, cell lines are available from control subjects and patients with various genetic mutations in Alzheimer’s Disease, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Ataxia-Telangiectasia, Down Syndrome, Dystonia, Frontotemporal Dementia, Huntington’s Disease, Lewy Body Dementia, Mild Cognitive Impairment, Multiple System Atrophy, Myotonic Dystrophy, Parkinson’s Disease, Parkinsonisms, Spinal Muscular Atrophy, Spinal-Bulbar Muscular Atrophy, and Spinocerebellar Ataxia.

Access to biospecimens is critically needed across all stages of biomedical research. The NINDS repositories, BioSEND and NHCDR, provide biofluid samples and patient-derived cell lines from various neurological disorders. Both repositories continue to expand available cohorts and distribute worldwide to the scientific research community, including academia and industry. More information about BioSEND and available samples can be found at https://biosend.org/index.html. More information about NHCDR and available cells, including ordering, can be found at https://stemcells.nindsgenetics.org/.