Information for participants: What has happened to the blood and DNA samples?

The samples have been transferred to the MRC Twenty-07 Tissue Bank in Glasgow where they have been made anonymous (i.e. assigned a special code) and stored indefinitely.

MRC Researchers will be able to request samples of the stored blood or DNA for use in future research studies and although it is not possible to say in advance what the nature of such studies might be, because priorities in medical research do change from time to time, an expert MRC scientific review committee will have to first approve each request based on its scientific merit.

Your identity is protected at all times. Much of the future research will be laboratory-based using tissue that has been made anonymous. The results of these analyses will be linked to other information that you have provided in an anonymous form.

Note that in giving consent to the transfer of your leftover samples to the MRC Twenty-07 Tissue Bank, you are consenting to their use in future medical research that may be carried out:

• By researchers at the MRC
• By other researchers in the NHS and its partner universities in collaboration with the MRC research team
• Not only by researchers in the UK but in other countries too in collaboration with the MRC research team