Requests

Thank you for your interest in receiving resources from the National NeuroAIDS Tissue Consortium (NNTC).  The NNTC can provide variety of tissues and samples from HIV positive and negative patients. This includes central and peripheral nervous system tissue, CSF, Blood and other organs such as heart, lung, liver, and kidney. Our large array of samples are accompanied by comprehensive histories and clinical data.

If you intend to submit an NNTC Request Application for a letter of support for a grant submission, please do so at least 20 business days before your target date. The NNTC requires additional time to process request applications especially during grant cycles. Applications submitted to the NNTC with less than 20 business days will be processed to the best of our ability, but no guarantee can be made for review and approval prior to your NIH grant submission. The timeline for reviewing a request may extend beyond 20 days if the application and supporting documents are not complete and/or the availability of data or samples meeting your research needs has not been confirmed prior to submission.  The review process may also be delayed if questions about the application from the DCC or members of the Steering Committee cannot be resolved in a timely manner. If the requested letter of support is not approved by your submission deadline, a provisional letter can be offered which confirms receipt and broadcast of your application to the NNTC but does not officially commit resources pending the outcome of th Steering Committee's review.

 

Request Application Submission:

To submit your request, follow the steps below. If you are a new investigator, begin at step 1. If you are a returning investigator, begin at step 4, after logging into your account:
1. You will first need to request an account to access the secure investigator area of the website. To do so, click “Connect With Us” located in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
2. Enter “Request New Account” in the body field and complete the other required information. You will be emailed instructions on how to access your account typically within 24 hours. Continue following the next steps below.
3. Log into the NNTC website using the link provided to reset your password.
4. Access the request application by navigating to the "Request Review" tab and clicking "New Application". 
5. Follow the instructions for completing the electronic, web-based application.
6. The system will automatically save your application progress. If you are unable to complete the current application in a single session and/or wish to make modifications at a later date, you may access the current and all past applications by clicking the "Request Review" tab found in the main menu after logging in. The first table listed on the resulting page, "My Applications", will list all applications created by you and display links to either modify or delete. The DCC is available to answer questions and help evaluate study feasibility by generating lists of potential cases for consideration. 
7. After your request application is processed by the DCC and broadcasted to the consortium for review, you can review the official broadcast and track its status by navigating to the same "Request Review" page as noted in the previous bullet above. The broadcast of each request will appear in a second table on the page called "My Requests".
8. If you wish to make any modifications to a submitted application, please inform the DCC and describe any changes you are planning to make to ensure these are included in the official broadcast the NNTC. Please email the DCC at nntc@emmes.com.

Please be aware that we expect you to uphold the Acknowledgment Agreement that was signed as part of your request application, citing Federal Grant numbers as specified in the agreement.

Required components of the application:

1.    Contact information
2.    Biosketch or CV
3.    If applicable, shipment information for samples including courier account #
4.    Concept outline, which can be downloaded here.
5.    Duration, and funding source of project
6.    Experimental group strata including HIV status, gender, age, sex, and inclusion/exclusion criteria
7.    If applicable, sample selection criteria and associated rationale
8.    If applicable, clinical data selections (Data Requests only) including associated rationale for each data item needed for analysis
9.    User agreements for sample requests or data requests

Review Process:

All requests undergo a review process in the order they are received in. The Data Coordinating Center first processes the application to ensure clarity and completeness prior to broadcasting to the NNTC Allocations Committee. Please note that following the broadcast, the committee requires at least two weeks to complete their review of each specimen and/or letter of support request. Upon approval, the letter or specimens will be shipped to your laboratory as such specimens become available to the Consortium. The Consortium charges no fee for providing this service, however the cost of shipping will be assumed by the recipient. We preferably ship via FedEx; however we can work with investigators if alternate carriers are necessary.  We request that you provide us with your FedEx account number in the Specimen Request Application.

Note: All publications resulting from NNTC resources must acknowledge the NNTC and the Federal grant numbers of those contributing banks, as well as the DCC using the verbiage below (see NNTC Request Application page 7 for more information):

"This publication was made possible from NIH funding through the NIMH and NINDS Institutes by the following grants:

Texas NeuroAIDS Research Center: U24MH100930
California NeuroAIDS Tissue Network: U24MH100928
National Neurological AIDS Bank: U24MH100929
Manhattan HIV Brain Bank: U24MH100931
Data Coordinating Center: U24MH100925

Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official view of the NNTC or NIH"

The Consortium is pleased to be able to provide this specialized service to help facilitate your research program. Please feel free to contact us regarding the status of your request or with any other questions you may have by clicking the “Connect with Uslink.


Direct Contact

Researchers may also contact the DCC directly using the following information:

Phone: 301-251-1161 ext. 244
Fax: 301-576-4597
Toll-free: 1-866-NNTC-BRAIN (1-866-668-2272)
Email: nntc@emmes.com
NNTC Data Coordinating Center
401 North Washington Street,
Suite 700 Rockville, MD 20850