Richard Reynolds and Dave King

Professor Richard Reynolds runs the multiple sclerosis (MS) Tissue Bank at Imperial College London. This organisation is licensed by the HTA to store human tissue for research. Dave King’s wife suffered from MS and she decided to donate her brain to research after her death.

Professor Richard Reynolds (right), MS Tissue Bank

"I am Head of the Department of Cell and Molecular Neuroscience at Imperial College and one of the major aspects of my job is to run the UK MS Tissue Bank.

"It is rewarding for people to know they can make a lasting gift that may help future generations of MS sufferers. It is important that those who donate, and their families, know that tissue will be treated with respect and used only for good quality research.

"The study of human tissue affected by disease is absolutely vital in order to understand what is damaging the tissues. One of the biggest problems in our sector over the last 50 years has been variability of tissue quality which can affect the outcomes of research. With the HTA, we now have an organisation that can make sure the appropriate quality standards are consistently applied across the board."

Dave King (left), donated his wife's tissue for research

"My wife, Doreen, had MS and she made the decision to donate her brain to the MS tissue bank after her death. Human tissue is central to studying disease. Studying diseases without human tissue would be a bit like a bricklayer working without bricks. 

"It is my mission to get others to donate their tissue to research to help us find new treatments. Sometimes people are shocked that I am so keen to discuss this as it isn't something that people like to think about.

"But it is important because the doctors really don't know how MS acts on the body; and until they know, they can't make progress finding new treatments.

"I think Richard is doing a great job. The tissue bank supplies labs all over the world with tissue to study MS."