Researchers
Researchers Change the Future –
We Aim to Assist
Studying ocular disease may require diseased tissue and control tissue. As your research projects come to fruition, it is important to plan accordingly for the ocular tissue needed. Researchers are often not familiar with the nuanced world of eye donation and as eye bankers, we are unaware of the novel projects yet to be devised. To that end, it’s important for us to come together to determine how to meet researcher needs.
The Lions Medical Eye Bank and Research Center of Eastern Virginia participates in research and medical education projects with private and public institutions by providing and preparing donated human tissue gifts.
If you are a researcher and would like to receive tissue from the Lions Medical Eye Bank and Research Center of Eastern Virginia, please contact 757-388-2020 or distribution@lionseyebank.org.
As a key part of our Mission, tissue not suitable for transplant use, and with expressed consent for research use, is distributed fairly to researchers and for medical education.
Considerations:​
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Does your research project require diseased or control (healthy) ocular tissues?
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Considering that a potential donor meeting transplant eligibility would not be available as a research donor, the pool of available donors is reduced.
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Can tissues donated from patients with septicemia upon death be considered for your project?
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Can tissues donated from patients with prior ocular surgery be considered for your project?
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Do tissues recovered for your project require special fixation procedures or reagents?
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How quickly following recovery or preservation do tissues need to arrive at your location?
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Has your research grant appropriately allocated funds for donated human eye tissue?
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NOTE: Donor identification is confidential. Medical history is limited to what may be obtained by the eye bank at the time of donation. This commonly includes information from hospital records (esp. where the patient died) and input from the next-of-kin, while this commonly excludes information contained in ophthalmic clinic systems.