Welcome to the Huntington Disease (HD) Biobank

The Huntington Disease Biobank at the UBC Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics

The Huntington Disease (HD) Biobank, at the UBC Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics (CMMT), is one of the largest HD biobanks in the world. Since the 1980s, patients and their families have generously gifted human samples to contribute to critical discoveries in the field of HD. During this time, a significant proportion of the scientific publications from UBC HD Labs have relied on experiments which make use of patient samples such as blood, DNA, brain, and other tissues.

The gift of human biological specimens, along with medical and family history details, are an invaluable resource for researchers worldwide. The HD Biobank is a proud custodian of these samples and clinical data from the neurodegeneration community. With the permission of our donors, we collect, store, study, and share the samples and data with a community of collaborators who are working tirelessly to understand and treat HD and other neurodegenerative disorders.

As research findings lead to new questions, the collection and storage of these crucial samples is needed now more than ever. Expanding the HD Biobank by collecting high quality samples and data from diverse groups of patients, with a formal system to share them, will propel research for now and into the future. The search for donors, new collaborations, and new lines of investigation, continues with our belief that the careful study of the genetic, biochemical, molecular, and pathological features of the disease will ultimately lead to new strategies for diagnostics and treatments of HD and neurodegeneration. We are indeed a partnership bound together in a common goal – the development of approaches to lessen the burden of HD and neurodegeneration on families.