About us

Veterinary Tissue Bank (VTB), Europe’s first tissue bank, was established in 2009 to provide a tissue banking service to veterinary professionals. It was founded to fulfil the need of companion animals in tissue transplantation and to progress the field of veterinary surgery.

Veterinary Tissue Bank was founded by Dr. Peter Myint BVSc PhD and Professor John Innes BVSc PhD CdrtVR DSAS(ortho) FRCVS. Between the two founders, VTB has a unique combination of experience and knowledge in veterinary tissue banking and clinical application. Peter has many years of experience in human tissue banking especially in musculoskeletal tissues. Professor John Innes is a specialist veterinary orthopaedic surgeon in small animals and is well known internationally in the field.

VTB provides an indispensable service to veterinary industry, making it possible to have the pets treated with most advanced surgical procedures. Over 10,000 dogs and cats have so far benefited from tissue grafts and VTB hopes that the service will extend to include a wide range of different tissues providing benefits to many more pets.

The veterinary tissue donation programme is developed to provide both an ethical and a safe source of tissues. All pet donors are screened according to the donor selection criteria which includes vaccination and medical histories. Pet donors are treated with respect and care, and the tissues are procured and processed to the highest level of standard by fully trained staff.

VTB’s cell banking service provides the most advanced treatment in cell therapies for companion animals. VTB has become a leading veterinary service provider in veterinary cell therapy including arthritis and spinal cord injuries. Hundreds of dogs have benefited from the cells supplied by VTB.

VTB has state of the art facilities to process and store tissues and cells. Inline with the Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) processing takes place in ISO 7 (class 10,000) and ISO 5 (class 100) cleanrooms. Storage facility includes ultra-low freezers and liquid nitrogen set up. A dedicated tissue retrieval suit and a laboratory are within the facilities available.

VTB practises a comprehensive record keeping system. Each donation is anonymised and each graft carries a unique number to ensure full traceability from donation to clinical use.