Overview
In 1989, in collaboration with the late Dr. Victor Chang AO, Prof. Cris dos Remedios established the Sydney Heart Bank (SHB) at the University of Sydney to collect and store explanted human hearts for research purposes.
The SHB now comprises over 18,000 human cardiac samples from explanted failing hearts and non-diseased donor hearts from patients at St Vincent’s Hospital Sydney. In more recent years, under the Directorship of A/Prof Sean Lal, the SHB is now a biobank of international standards that has also expanded to prospectively procure heart, aortic, and vascular samples from patients at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in collaboration with Prof Paul Bannon and Dr Jacky Loa.
The SHB is completely not-for-profit and collaborates with over 30 research laboratories within Australia and around the world. The independent external research projects are in conjunction with our own in-house projects. The research projects range from examining cardiac regeneration, contractile mechanics cellular and molecular cardiology, cardiac proteomics, vascular diseases, and aortic diseases.
We gratefully thank the support of the Faculty of Medicine and Health at the University of Sydney, and The Baird Institute (for applied heart and lung surgical research) in maintaining the infrastructure, staffing, and operations of the SHB. We also acknowledge the patients and staff of St. Vincent’s Hospital, Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital.
Collaborators
Research laboratories we currently collaborate with:
Australia
- Westmead Millennium Institute, NSW
- University of Melbourne
- University of New South Wales, NSW
- Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, NSW
- University of Newcastle, NSW
- Australian National University, ACT
- University of Queensland, QLD
- Baker IDI Heart & Diabetes Research Institute, VIC
- Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, VIC
- Monash University, VIC
- Federation University Australia, VIC
- University of Western Australia
Europe
- Imperial College London, UK
- Kings College London, UK
- St. Georges University London
- VU Medical Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
- University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands
- Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany
- Karolinska Institute, Sweden
- Uppsala University, Sweden
New Zealand
- University of Auckland
- University of Otago
Asia
- Waseda University, Tokyo
- National Technological University, Singapore
Canada
- University of Ontario
United States
- Mayo Clinic
- University of Kentucky
- Johns Hopkins University
- University of Maryland
- Harvard Medical School
- Children’s Hospital Boston
- University of Pittsburgh
- University South Carolina
- Loyola University Chicago
- University of Minnesota
Executive & Scientific Review Board
Directors
A/Prof Sean Lal
Prof Paul Bannon
Biobank Manager
Dr Cassandra Malecki
Biobank RA
Mr Lakshay Seth
RPA Biobank Team
Prof Paul Bannon (Cardiothoracic Surgeon)
Dr Jacky Loa (Vascular Surgeon)
A/Prof Sean Lal (Cardiologist)
Senior clinical nurses: Lisa Turner & Lorna Beattie
Scientific Review Board
Chair: Professor Peter Macdonald
Basic Science Members
- Professor Jolanda van der Velden
- Professor Ken Campbell
- Professor Cris dos Remedios
- A/Professor Amy Li
Clinical Science Members
- Professor Richmond Jeremy
- Dr Jacky Loa
- Professor Anne Keogh
Types of samples in the SHB
- Ischaemic Cardiomyopathy
- Dilated Cardiomyopathy
- Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy
- Restrictive Cardiomyopathy
- Alcohol induced Cardiomyopathy
- Virus induced Cardiomyopathy
- Peripartum Cardiomyopathy
- Adriamycin induced Cardiomyopathy
- Others (Marfan, Sarcoid, Myocarditis, Eisenmengers, Rheumatic, Valvular)
- Thoracic aorta
- Vascular (Carotid, Abdominal Aorta)
- Coronary arteries
- Myomectomies
Before you apply
Please first contact A/Prof Sean Lal ( [email protected] ) to discuss if the SHB has the appropriate samples for your research project. Then, please provide the following documents at the time of requesting tissue:
- Two-page project proposal. This proposal will need to satisfy the follow criteria:
- Two-page CV/biosketch
- Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) approval letter from your local institution with start and end dates
Application process overview
- Lodge a request for tissue. This must include the proposal, CV and HREC approval.
- The documents will be assessed by members of the scientific review board.
- If approved, the SHB will generate a Material Transfer Agreement between the two institutions.
- The SHB will then arrange to transport at the cost of the receiving institution
Sydney Heart Bank User Policy
Any and all biological samples from the SHB must
- Always be stored in liquid nitrogen (liquid or vapour phase)
- Not be re-coded in any form
- Not be used for project other than that specified in the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) Approval and Material Transfer Agreements.
- Not be exchanged between institutions without pre-acknowledgement and agreement from the SHB
- To be returned to the SHB if unused
All publication outputs (including conferences) must
- Acknowledge and identify HREC approval from the Sydney Heart Bank and the recipient’s local institution
- Use the original de-identified code provided by the SHB. This information enables published data to be shared between laboratories working on tissue from the same patients.
