National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium (NNTC)
The National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium (NNTC) was established in 1998 with support from NIMH and NINDS as a multi-site data and tissue repository that collects and distributes well-characterized antemortem and postmortem tissue specimens with clinical and serological data from HIV-infected individuals.
The NNTC mission is to facilitate research on the effects of HIV infection by providing to qualified investigators high-quality, well-characterized tissue and/or data from patients with end-stage disease. Comprehensive neuromedical and neuropsychiatric data are collected antemortem and standardized postmortem protocols are followed to provide high quality tissue. Researchers can request tissues/fluids and clinical data from patients who have been characterized by:
- degree of neurobehavioral impairment
- neurological and other clinical diagnoses
- history of drug use
- antiretroviral treatments
- blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) viral load
- neuropathological diagnosis
- raw and summary neuropsychological test scores
- clinical laboratory results (i.e blood chemistries, urine toxicology)
- gene expression data
As a resource to the greater scientific community, a query tool has been released online to allow investigators to easily search the consortium's specimen holdings based on a number of clinical criteria. Please click on the following link for access: Specimen Query Tool
The NNTC targets individuals with end-stage HIV, but also collects information from HIV negative individuals who wish to donate tissues to the NNTC.
- Texas NeuroAIDS Research Center - Galveston, TX
- California NeuroAIDS Tissue Network - San Diego, CA
- National Neurological AIDS Bank - Los Angeles, CA
- Manhattan HIV Brain Bank - New York, NY
- Statistics and Data Coordinating Center
- The EMMES Corporation (Data Coordinating Center) - Rockville, MD
- Indiana University School of Medicine (Statistics Coordinating Center) - Indianapolis, IN
For more information on NNTC sites, please visit the interactive Site Map.