Enacting regulation: tissue in practice

Abstract This paper steps to the side of the usual discussions of the status of tissue in ethics and law to consider instead the enactment of regulation in the daily practice of researchers. This is a separate and often overlooked area between regulation as drafted by legislators and policy makers, and as experienced by those who work within that regulatory frame. The paper considers the governance and procedures put in place and the expertise made available in one research centre. Focus on the bridging, facilitation activity of a particular research tissue bank affords an on-the-ground account of how ethical and legal requirements related to the use of human tissue in research in the United Kingdom work out in the everyday practice of collecting, storing and providing tissue for research.