The Lothian NRS BioResource is part of a collaboration between Scottish Universities and Health Boards to help translate discoveries made in research laboratories into improved care for patients. The Lothian NRS BioResource does this by collecting and storing biospecimens (small samples of tissue, cells and body fluids) and releasing these for approved scientific and medical research projects and medical education. The tissue samples are even more useful for this purpose if they have some depersonalised patient data linked to them. This BioResource is run by NHS Lothian, and has been approved by a Research Ethics Committee. The samples will only ever be used in research and medical education projects which have been approved by a scientific review committee.