Dr Joanna Sumner, Manager of Genetic Resources jsumner@museum.vic.gov.au
Museum Victoria, GPO Box 666, Melbourne VIC 3001 AUSTRALIA
July 2009
The Melbourne Museum, as apart of Museum Victoria (MV), houses a collection of over 20,000 specimens of tissue and blood preserved from amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals and invertebrates. The majority of samples are associated with vouchers in the MV specimen collections. Unlike traditional specimens, tissue samples are eventually depleted with use. Thus, the MV curators have formulated the following guidelines to ensure that destructive sampling does not exhaust these limited resources. These guidelines also apply to destructive sampling of traditional museum specimens (e.g., skin and skeletal material) for biochemical, isotope, or other kinds of analyses. In developing such guidelines, consideration was given to policies instituted by other major tissue collections. The overall goal of the MV tissue collection policy is to preserve the value of its collections for present and future use.
General Philosophy
MV will provide limited grants of tissue from its collections to qualified researchers.
Such grants are intended to supplement material from wild or captive animals obtained independently by users of the collections. Implicit in its use of the term
"grant" is the understanding that users will abide by certain requirements. In turn, MV will absorb the high cost of obtaining, housing, cataloguing, and maintaining these samples.
Researchers also may request samples of skin, hair, feathers, toe pads, or bone from traditional specimens for DNA or other analyses. Such requests should follow the same guidelines as those for tissues, although the researcher must provide compelling reasons why the project cannot be completed without destructive sampling of MV specimens. Requests for destructive sampling of skin or skeletal material will be evaluated more stringently than other requests. Requests for destructive sampling of
MV tissues or specimens is an explicit acknowledgment that the researcher supports legitimate scientific collecting, and that he/she values the time and effort that goes into collecting, preparing, and maintaining museum collections.

Procedures and Policies
1. All requests for frozen or preserved tissues must be received in writing (e-mail form below or formal letter on institutional letterhead) and directed to the appropriate
Curator or the Manager of Genetic Resources. Students may not request tissue samples, any tissue requests must be submitted by the student’s supervisor or faculty advisor.
Information relating to the following points should be provided in the letter:

Expertise of the applicants - applicants must have direct experience with the proposed research, procedures and protocols, or be in a laboratory where the necessary expertise is available. Where the requested material involves destructive sampling of a study specimen or mount the applicant must (a) have a track record in ancient DNA or similar analysis and (b) demonstrate that they have already developed the appropriate methodologies for the study.

Description of the project - a short description of the project should be submitted including its duration, investigators involved, expected significance of the study and what methodologies are to be used (e.g. microsatellite genotyping, PCR sequencing). For DNA sequencing projects the genes or regions of DNA to be sequenced must be specified.

What samples are required and why - provide a listing of the species and number of individuals required in addition to any other relevant information
(sex, locality information, tissue type, registration number) and a brief justification of why this material is required to conduct the research.
2. Grants of tissue from Museum Victoria’s tissue collection are made solely to the applicant for the specified project. They are not be passed on to other researchers or used in additional projects without prior approval from Museum Victoria. For DNA sequencing and microsatellite projects, only those genes/loci specified in the original application are to be studied.
3. Museum Victoria reserves the right to request the return of unused or leftover tissue at the completion of the project.
4. No commercial use will be made of, nor license or patent applied for on the samples or any information or data derived from them.
5. Museum Victoria does not charge for tissue grants.

6. DNA sequences with their associated Museum Victoria Catalogue numbers must be lodged in the GenBank database (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/) at the completion of the study so that they are accessible to other researchers; GenBank accession numbers must be reported to Museum Victoria. Tissue grants will not be made to applicants who have a track record of non-lodgement of sequence data.
7. Researchers must acknowledge Museum Victoria, and include Museum Victoria
Catalogue numbers in all publications and reports associated with the samples provided. A reprint of any publication benefiting from an MV tissue grant must be sent to the Manager of Genetic Resources at Museum Victoria.
8. Requests for tissues must be accompanied by copies of all requisite permits. For foreign researchers, this includes a copy of any import permit required by the foreign government. If no permit is needed, the researcher must state such in writing at the time that the tissue request is submitted.
9. Requests will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis according to the following criteria:

The kind and extent of request, including whether it duplicates previous efforts.

Availability of material from wild or captive sources, and efforts by the investigator(s) to obtain such material.

Amount of material in the Museum Victoria collections.

Rarity and replaceability of the samples (i.e., distribution and abundance of the taxon relative to the location of the user).

Demonstrated ability of the investigator(s) to perform the work and complete the project.
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Financial support for the project.
10. In the event of a tissue grant request being refused, the grant applicant may approach the Head of Science for further information concerning the request process.
11. While we cannot guarantee the taxonomic identity of the tissue samples as some specimens are not accompanied by voucher specimens and identifications are based on field identifications, every effort is made to reduce the chance of misidentification.
Where the researcher suspects that a sample may have been misidentified or mislabelled, we will supply an additional tissue sample from another individual, where available.
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11. Any other conditions or stipulations made by Museum Victoria.

Name of Researcher:
Researcher's Institution and Postal Address:
Phone :
FAX :
Email:
If researcher is a student, name of adviser/supervisor:
Expertise of the applicants:
Description of the project:
What samples are required and why:
CITES Institution code for Postal destination for alcohol preserved material:
Signature: