About Us

The Nervous System Tumor Bank (NSTB), established in early 2014 to address the growing need for high‑quality glioblastoma (GBM) biospecimens, has since expanded to collect blood and tissue samples from patients with a wide range of brain and spinal cord tumors. The NSTB team is committed to providing investigators with well‑characterized biospecimens and will work collaboratively to build cohorts tailored to each project’s specific goals and research questions. Available services include data acquisition, specimen collection, and a variety of histology services. For current information on biospecimen availability, please email the NSTB team.

Sample Collection

We work closely with the neurological surgery team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital for each sample collection. We work with the surgical residents, attending physicians, anesthesiology, nursing staff, pathology teams and many others. This highly integrated environment allows our team to collect biospecimens in an efficient manner directly from the hospital.

NSTB Protocol

Our protocol prioritizes ongoing research projects here at Northwestern University that require fresh tumor tissue. This allows researchers access to highly valuable fresh tissue research specimens. Tumor tissue is also stored for future research projects as frozen tissue and formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue blocks. These long-term storage samples are available to researchers outside of Northwestern as well. In addition to tumor samples, our biobank routinely processes and stores blood for peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and plasma.

Download current NSTB protocol

How to Submit a Request

Biospecimen Requests

To submit a request for research specimens, please complete the NSTB request form and submit it through the NSTB Disburser website. For non-Northwestern scientists, please email the form to nervous.system.tumor.bank@northwestern.edu. Requests are reviewed monthly at the NSTB committee meeting. The NSTB works with NUCore for the billing of our items and services.

Data Access & Data Queries

The NSTB has established an online database to document the growing tissue collection utilizing REDCap. Efforts to link de-identified clinical data to biospecimens are ongoing. Access to this database can be requested through email to the NSTB research team. Access is only available to Northwestern investigators.

Contact Us

Simpson Querrey 6-500
303 E. Superior St.
Chicago, IL 60611
312-503-0977
Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Voicemails are secure.

Meet our Team

Authorship Agreement

The effort required to obtain, catalog, and distribute Northwestern University Nervous System Tumor Bank (NSTB) biospecimens and data is quite substantial. We are willing and excited to share this resource to advance scientific inquiry. We ask to recognize our multi-departmental team members involved in these efforts. The inclusion of the relevant authors will be determined by the Oversight Committee based on the specifics of the utilization request. Individual authors will retain the right to accept or refuse authorship.