This application is for support to establish a site for the HIV/CNS Tissue network, to be known as the """"""""National Neurologic AIDS Bank"""""""" (NNAB). Based in Los Angeles, which has the largest and most diverse AIDS population in the western USA, the NNAB will provide researchers with well-characterized neural tissue from HIV-1-infected and seronegative control donors. The NNAB will collaborate with the other designated sites, funding agencies, and outside experts to develop the local and national tissue networks. The application includes plans to create a Network Steering Committee, a panel of outside advisors, and a protocol to recruit and characterize human donors. The NNAB will collect pre- and post-mortem clinical data and neural tissues using a standardized autopsy protocol and will store, code, catalogue, and distribute these tissues. An electronic database and an Internet-based application process that researchers can use to access the Network's resources will be designed. Participants will be followed at multiple sites, with home visits if needed to obtain neuropsychological testing within six months prior to death. Attention will be focused on forming a collaborative relationship with the patients and their families in order to ensure that pre- and post-mortem tissue is obtained Unique efforts targeting the recruitment of women and minorities are specified Autopsies will be performed with attention to reducing tissue autolysis time. The tissue will be catalogued in an electronic database, stored in dedicated facilities, and distributed according to the future HIV/CNS Tissue Network guidelines. Members of the team assembled for the NNAB are clinical researchers in HIV-1 neuroscience, neuropathology, medicine, toxicology, and drug addiction. The members of this team have worked together for over 10 years and have a proven record of enrolling, retaining, and collecting specimens from large numbers of participants in HIV-1-neurological studies. They have previously developed human tissue banks, computerized databases, and multi-center research programs The proposed NNAB will utilize the experience of two successful local human tissue banks, the National Neurologic Research Specimen Bank and the AIDS Malignancy Bank. These Banks contain thousands of pre- and post-mortem specimens from longitudinally studies donors. These specimens are currently available for research.
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