Tissue Supply Chain

Outer Bio is grateful for all the individuals that donate tissue to further non-clinical skin biology research. In partnership with our tissue procurement partners we source, secure, manage, and process each tissue donation with respect and care. Our human tissue procurement network spans North America and is specialty tailored to ensure our research is inclusive and representative of the diversity found across human skin. Our network is comprised of both commercial and non-profit suppliers of biospecimens for the scientific research community.

These are hospitals, medical research centers, biobanks, and organ and tissue procurement organizations - critical stakeholders in the biomedical research ecosystem.

Before a partner is included in our network, we vet each organization for their commitment to donor privacy and the ethical, fair, treatment of donor medical information. Outer Bio and our partner organizations share a deep commitment that any human tissue donation used in our research follows all applicable federal, state, and local laws or regulations. Organizations in our network comply with industry best practices in their accreditations and certifications to guarantee safe and reliable handling of human biospecimens, and often, they establish institutional policies that provide additional protections for human subjects. As the recipient, Outer Bio only receives de-identified, adult (i.e. >20yo), tissue that meets our strict criteria. We do not further transfer donations unless explicitly permitted, we do not commercialize the tissue itself, and we treat any anonymized medical information supplied with the tissue as confidential and always kept secure.

Outer Bio does not receive any human tissue from our network that could be used for transplantation or related life-saving medical interventions. We only request and receive tissue donations designated for research use obtained by informed consent. This is typically skin from surgical remnants or excess skin from healthy individuals receiving elective medical procedures. However, our extensive tissue procurement network enables us to specify donors that meet particular demographic profiles, as well as obtain fresh, postmortem, and disease tissues if our research and development activities requires it.

Outer Bio trusts our network to ethically source skin samples, and the network trusts that we will treat each donation with dignity and not exploit it beyond the agreed upon research protocols. Our established tissue procurement network is truly a collaborative, interdependent relationship to advance our understanding of human skin biology. Together, we are in community with, and in service to the donors, each of us proudly playing an essential role in conducting impactful meaningful science that benefits everyone.