Data Requests

The CTE Center at Boston University is invested in helping further the world’s knowledge of CTE and we encourage investigators to request data and resources from our center to support their research needs and endeavors. Below the data request forms have been categorized based on the resource being requested. Please review them carefully to determine which type of request best suits your research needs before beginning the form. Please be aware that, depending on the request, you may need to fill out more than one request form. All requests are formally reviewed by the BU ADRC Executive Committee and may take months to fulfill.

If you start the online form but do not have time to complete it, please use the “save and continue” button at the bottom of each page until you get to the last page of the form. There, you will have the option to save the request until it is complete. Once the request is complete, please use the “Submit” button to send the request to our Executive Committee for review.

Please note that all data sent to approved external investigators is de-identified. 

Note: In order to fulfill our center’s mission, information regarding our data and participants’ enrollment must be reported back to our center.

Clinical Data Request

Clinical data requests include demographic, diagnostic, and other risk factor data on HOPE participants. More limited data is available on Registry participants. Please submit a Clinical Research Data Request Form to access existing clinical research data.

MRI Data Request

MRI data is available on a subset of the HOPE study participants. These data were collected on a 3T Philips scanner using a 32-channel head coil at the Center for Biomedical Imaging at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. This scanner is ADNI certified. The MRI scan protocol includes a T1 MPRAGE sequence, FLAIR sequence, T2* sequence, HARDI sequence, and resting-state fMRI sequence. The T1 MPRAGE sequences have been processed using Freesurfer and quantitative data is available through the BU ADRC data core. Raw images in dicom format are available for sharing with qualified researchers for all sequences. MRI scan acquisition with this protocol began in 2015. Follow-up scans are now being collected from selected participants. All scans were acquired using study-specific IDs and no identifying information is included in the scan headers. This information would need to be obtained from the BU ADRC data core. Please contact Dr. Michael Alosco, BU CTE & ADRC Clinical Core (malosco@bu.edu) for more information about these MRI scans. 

BioSample Request

To access biological samples, including plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, and DNA, among others, please submit a BioSample Request Form.

Brain Tissue Request

To obtain brain tissue samples for your research, please submit a Brain Tissue Request Form. Due to high demand, all requests for tissue will be limited to a maximum of 20 samples per request. Please note all requests for brain tissue usually take at least 6 months to fill after your request has been approved by the Executive Committee.