The Specimen Resource Locator is a database to help researchers locate human specimens (tissue, serum, DNA/RNA, other specimens) for cancer research. It includes tissue banks and tissue procurement systems with access to normal, benign precancerous and cancerous human tissue from a variety of organs.

Find Specimens:

Specimens from Patients with Tumors

• Select type of tumor, sample, method of preservation, number of cases...


Specimens From Normal Subjects

• Select organ site, type of sample, method of preservation, number of cases...


Contact Tissue Expediter

• Contact a scientist who can relate researcher needs to existing resources
• Address, telephone, and email


Let Us Know if You Have Specimen Collections


• Make your specimen collection more widely available
• List your collection on our site

Find Other Research Resources:

Tissue Array Research Program(TARP): Multi-Tumor Tissue Microarrays

• 500 tissue samples arrayed onto a glass slide

Information on Cell Lines
• American Type Culture Collection (ATCC)
• NCI Developmental Therapeutics Program Repository
60 human cancer cell lines
• Coriell Cell Repositories


NCI Research Resources
• Animal Resources
• Databases
• Drugs, Chemicals, Biologicals

Other Information on Human Specimens

Legal and Ethical Issues

How to Establish and Manage a Tissue Bank

Links to Other Web Sites

• Cancer Diagnosis Program
• Research Resources
• Resources Development Branch