CJD Research and Resource Centre

The CJD Research and Resource Centre was established by the UK Department of Health and Social Care working in coordination with the World Health Organisation as part of their response to the appearance of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD). We operate as a research tissue bank with the express aim of centralising and standardising rare CJD positive biological samples.

By 2008, progress in the field of variant CJD diagnostics had led to an increasing demand for access to rare variant CJD positive blood samples, and the Centre was designated as a central repository for these precious materials. Access to rare samples is subject to a comprehensive assessment of test performance in line with the common technical specification set out in EU Commission Decision 2011/869/EU. The Centre is uniquely capable of fairly assessing world leading assay developers and coordinating access to these materials.

Presently, the core activities of the CJD Research and Resource Centre include:

• Providing reference reagents for use in the diagnosis of CJD.

• Design and oversight of independent, blinded performance evaluations for blood biomarker tests in development for variant CJD.

• Research activities assessing the robustness of novel amyloid amplification methods in development for the diagnosis of variant CJD and other common amyloid disorders.