ACTC Biobank

Biobank

Start a Request

Terms of Use

Last Revised September 1, 2026 (“Effective Date”)

About the Biobank

Thank you for your interest in the ACTC Biobank. The Biobank is operated by the Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute (“ATRI”) at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, as part of the Alzheimer’s Clinical Trials Consortium (“ACTC”).

The University of Southern California (“USC”), the Keck School of Medicine of USC, ATRI and the ACTC Biobank, and their officers, agents, employees and representatives, are collectively referred to here as “we”, “us” or “our”.

The terms of use described here (“Terms of Use”), the Privacy Policy referenced below, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference (collectively, the “Agreement”) govern your use of the ACTC Biobank website at https://actcbiobank.org (the “Site”), including all content, information and functionality available through it.

Your Acceptance of This Agreement

You must agree to this Agreement before you access, browse or use the Site. Your use of the Site is conditioned upon your acceptance of the terms set out in this Agreement and in the Privacy Policy, which is available at /privacy-policy/ and incorporated into these Terms of Use by this reference. If you do not agree to the terms set out in this Agreement, you may not use or access the Site or any content. By using or accessing the Site, you acknowledge that you have read, understand, and agree to be bound by these Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference.

Modifications to This Agreement

We reserve the right to modify or change these Terms of Use, the Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference. Any such modification is effective when posted, and the revision date at the top of this page will be updated. Each use of the Site by you constitutes your acceptance of the then-current versions of the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference. You are encouraged to review these pages periodically to stay informed of any changes.

No Medical Advice on the Site

All health and health-related information on the Site is general in nature, does not constitute medical advice, and should not be used as a substitute for consultation or treatment by a health care professional. Your health care provider should be consulted regarding matters concerning the medical condition, treatment and needs of you and your family. We do not monitor or review communications from or provided through the Site for medical diagnostic or emergency health care purposes.

Although we try to ensure that the material on the Site is accurate and timely, it is provided for the convenience of the website user. You should not assume that information on any topic available on the Site is accurate, complete, up to date, or applicable to any medical problem or condition you may have. Content found on the Site is for informational use only.

This information is provided without warranty for quality or accuracy. Neither we nor any other contributing author is responsible for any errors or omissions in any information provided on the Site, or for the results obtained from the use of such information.

In the event of a medical emergency, call your doctor or dial 911 immediately. Do not disregard or delay seeking medical care or advice because of content you may have read on the Site.

Privacy and Protection of Personally Identifiable Information

We collect information about you through your use of the Site. By using the Site, you agree that we may collect, retain, use and share information collected through your use of the Site in accordance with the Privacy Policy, which is referenced above and incorporated by reference into this Agreement. Please refer to the Privacy Policy for disclosures relating to the collection and use of your personally identifiable information.

Ownership of Materials

All content on the Site (including but not limited to names, logos, designs, trademarks, service marks, images, pictures, text, information, graphics, photographs, illustrations, artwork, audio clips, video clips, software, data, documentation, technology, and any other elements and the selection and arrangement of them) (collectively, the “Materials”) is and will continue to be our property or the property of our content suppliers, and is or may be protected under applicable copyright, patent, trademark and other laws.

Any downloading, copying, transmission, distribution, use or publication by you of any such content or any part of the Site is strictly prohibited, except as and only to the extent expressly permitted in these Terms of Use. Under no circumstances will you acquire any ownership rights, license or other interest in any Materials by or through your use of the Site, and nothing on the Site is intended to nor should be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel or otherwise, any license or right to use any Materials displayed on the Site without our prior written permission, or the prior written permission of any third party that may own other Materials displayed on the Site.

Subject to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement, you are granted a limited, fully revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use the Site solely for your own personal, educational and non-commercial use, and not for republication, distribution, assignment, sublicense, sale, preparation of derivative works or other use. You may view, access, download or print hard copies of the Materials for your personal, educational and non-commercial use only. You may not change the Materials in any way or reproduce, publicly display, distribute or otherwise use them for any public or commercial purpose. You agree not to reverse engineer or tamper with the Site, and not to use in violation of any law any materials, products, services or other items you obtain through the Site. We reserve the right to terminate or suspend your use of the Site at any time, for any reason or no reason, in our sole and absolute discretion.

Digital Millennium Copyright Act

Any copyright owner or its agent that believes that any Material on the Site infringes upon its copyright should give written notice to our authorized agent, listed below, in accordance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, Pub. L. No. 105-304, 112 Stat. 2860 (1998). The notice shall contain the following information:

  • A physical or electronic signature of the copyright owner or the individual authorized to act on behalf of the owner of a copyright that has allegedly been infringed upon;
  • Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or a representative list of such works at a single online site;
  • Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity, in a manner reasonably sufficient to permit us to locate the material;
  • The contact information of the copyright owner or the individual authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an email address;
  • A statement that the copyright owner or the individual authorized to act on behalf of the copyright owner has a good faith reasonable belief that the particular use of the identified material is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and
  • A statement, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate, and that the individual submitting the notice is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright that has allegedly been infringed.

A notice may not be valid if it fails to comply with all of the above requirements. Written notices of alleged infringement may be sent by mail, email or fax to our designated Copyright Agent for notice of claims of copyright infringement, as follows:

ATTN: Copyright Agent
Information Technology Services Division
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2812
Phone: 213-740-5555
Email: notices@usc.edu

Eligibility

In order to use the Site, you must be a United States resident of 18 years of age or older, an emancipated minor, or possess legal parental and/or guardian consent, and capable of entering into the terms and conditions set out in the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference. If you are not 18 years of age or older, you must be over the age of 13 to use or access the Site. The Site is not intended for use by persons under the age of 13. Please do not use the Site if you are under 13 years of age. We do not knowingly collect, either online or offline, personal information from persons under the age of 13.

User Content and Code of Conduct

You agree that you alone are responsible for any and all text, graphics, videos, images, sounds, and any other content that you submit or transmit on or through the Site, including any information you submit through the request or contact forms (collectively, “User Content”), and you represent that all information you provide to us will be truthful and accurate to the best of your knowledge. You also agree to comply with all applicable laws regarding your use of the Site.

You further agree not to submit or transmit any User Content or information that is untrue or inaccurate, or that you did not create and do not have permission to submit or transmit. You agree that the information you submit through the Site does not include any unlawful, libelous, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive or otherwise unlawful material, and does not violate or infringe upon the rights of any third party, including any copyright, trademark, privacy, publicity or other personal or proprietary right.

You agree not to submit information that identifies, or could reasonably be used to identify, any research participant or other individual whose information you hold in a professional capacity. The Site is intended for professional correspondence about the Biobank’s collection and services, and is not a system of record for individually identifiable health information.

Additionally, you agree that you will not:

  • use the Site in any unlawful manner, or in any other manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair the Site;
  • use the Site to intimidate or harass any individual;
  • impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your qualifications or your affiliation with any person or entity;
  • submit or otherwise make publicly available on the Site any private information of any third party, including but not limited to addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security numbers and credit card numbers;
  • obtain email addresses or other contact information of any individual from the Site for the purpose of sending unsolicited emails or other unsolicited communications;
  • use the Site as a means to distribute advertising or other unsolicited material to any third party;
  • submit or transmit any material that contains software viruses or any other computer code, files or programs designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment;
  • use automated scripts to collect information from or otherwise interact with the Site;
  • frame all or part of the Site, or use automated devices to search or scrape the Site;
  • change or delete any proprietary notices from materials downloaded or printed from the Site; or
  • systematically download or print materials from the Site.

Visiting the Site, submitting information through the Site, and sending emails to us or our agents or representatives constitute electronic communications. You consent to receive electronic communications, and you agree that all agreements, notices, disclosures and other communications that we provide to you electronically, by email and on the Site, satisfy any legal requirement that such communications be in writing. We reserve the right to remove any content from the Site that is profane, defamatory, inappropriate, off-topic or in violation of this Agreement, in our sole and absolute discretion.

No Guarantee of Accuracy of Information

We cannot guarantee the accuracy of the information that appears on the Site, including in any email or other alerts provided in connection with the Site. You should independently verify all information that may appear on the Site before making any decisions about requesting or contributing specimens or otherwise engaging with the Biobank.

Links to Other Sites

The Site may contain links to other sites. Links from the Site to any third-party website do not imply our endorsement of that site’s products or services, and we are not responsible for their content. References to third-party products, services or organizations do not imply our endorsement of those products, services or organizations. If you decide to access any sites linked through or from the Site, you do so entirely at your own risk, and we are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of those sites, which may also contain commercial advertising. Use of third-party sites may be subject to their own terms and conditions, and you are strongly encouraged to review their terms of use and privacy policies before using them.

Disclaimers and Warranties

YOU EXPRESSLY ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THE SITE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND THAT THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SITE ARE PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE.” WE AND EACH OF OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES AND/OR LICENSORS DO NOT REPRESENT OR WARRANT TO YOU THAT:

  • YOUR USE OF THE SITE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS;
  • YOUR USE OF THE SITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED, TIMELY, SECURE OR FREE FROM ERROR;
  • ANY INFORMATION OBTAINED BY YOU AS A RESULT OF YOUR USE OF THE SITE WILL BE ACCURATE OR RELIABLE; OR
  • DEFECTS IN THE OPERATION OR FUNCTIONALITY OF ANY SOFTWARE PROVIDED TO YOU AS PART OF THE SITE WILL BE CORRECTED.

ANY MATERIAL DOWNLOADED OR OTHERWISE OBTAINED BY YOU WHILE USING THE SITE IS DONE AT YOUR OWN DISCRETION AND RISK, AND YOU WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DAMAGE TO YOUR COMPUTER SYSTEM OR OTHER DEVICE OR LOSS OF DATA THAT RESULTS FROM THE DOWNLOAD OF ANY SUCH MATERIAL. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US OR THROUGH THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SITE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT. WE FURTHER EXPRESSLY DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Limitation of Liability

YOU EXPRESSLY UNDERSTAND AND AGREE THAT WE, AND EACH OF OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES AND/OR LICENSORS, SHALL NOT BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR:

  • ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL OR EXEMPLARY DAMAGES WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, HOWEVER CAUSED AND UNDER ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY LOSS OF GOODWILL OR BUSINESS REPUTATION, ANY LOSS OF DATA SUFFERED, COST OF PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSS;
  • ANY LOSS OR DAMAGE WHICH MAY BE INCURRED BY YOU, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO LOSS OR DAMAGE ARISING FROM:
    • ANY CHANGES WE MAY MAKE TO THE SITE, OR ANY PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY CESSATION IN THE PROVISION OF THE SITE OR ANY FEATURES WITHIN IT;
    • THE DELETION OF, CORRUPTION OF, OR FAILURE TO STORE, ANY CONTENT OR OTHER COMMUNICATIONS DATA MAINTAINED OR TRANSMITTED BY OR THROUGH YOUR USE OF THE SITE; OR
    • YOUR FAILURE TO PROVIDE US WITH ACCURATE INFORMATION.

THE LIMITATIONS ON OUR LIABILITY TO YOU SHALL APPLY WHETHER OR NOT WE OR YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF OR SHOULD HAVE BEEN AWARE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF ANY SUCH LOSSES ARISING. IF YOU ARE DISSATISFIED WITH ANY PORTION OF THE SITE, OR WITH ANY OF THESE TERMS OF USE OR ANY TERMS OR CONDITIONS CONTAINED IN THIS AGREEMENT, YOUR SOLE AND EXCLUSIVE REMEDY IS TO DISCONTINUE USING THE SITE.

Applicable Laws

You acknowledge and agree that this Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California, and you consent to jurisdiction in California, without regard to any conflict of law or choice of law principles, with respect to any claim or dispute between you and us. You irrevocably acknowledge and agree that any claim or dispute between you and us that arises in whole or in part from your use of the Site shall be decided exclusively by a state or federal court of competent jurisdiction located in Los Angeles County, California. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT YOU WAIVE ANY JURISDICTIONAL, VENUE, OR INCONVENIENT FORUM OBJECTIONS TO SUCH COURTS. ANY SUCH CLAIM OR ACTION WILL BE BROUGHT INDIVIDUALLY AND NOT ON A CLASS-WIDE BASIS. YOU KNOWINGLY WAIVE ANY RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN ANY FORM OF “CLASS,” “JOINT,” OR “REPRESENTATIVE” LITIGATION AGAINST US OR ANY OF OUR SUBSIDIARIES, AGENTS, AFFILIATES AND LICENSORS.

We make no representation that the Site is appropriate or available for use in locations outside the United States, or that it provides an adequate level of data protection as required in the European Union or elsewhere. If you access the Site from outside the United States, you do so on your own initiative and at your own risk, and you are responsible for complying with all applicable laws and regulations regarding online conduct, acceptable content and all other matters.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold harmless us, and each of our subsidiaries, agents, affiliates and/or licensors, against any claim, liability, expense or damages arising from or relating to your use of the Site. Your obligation to defend and indemnify us shall survive the termination of this Agreement and your use of the Site.

Severability

The various provisions contained within the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference are separate and independent. Should any term be declared unlawful, invalid or unenforceable for any reason by a court or other appropriate tribunal — including but not limited to the warranty disclaimers and liability limitations set out above — the invalid or unenforceable provision will be deemed superseded by a valid, enforceable provision that most closely matches the intent of the original, and the remaining provisions and terms shall remain in full force and effect.

Entire Agreement

The Terms of Use, Privacy Policy, and any other policy or guidelines incorporated into this Agreement by reference constitute the entire agreement between you and us with respect to the Site. This Agreement shall be binding on the parties and their respective successors and assigns. There are no third-party beneficiaries intended by this Agreement, and you may not assign or transfer this Agreement or your rights or obligations under it without our prior written consent.

Questions and Contact Information

Pursuant to California Civil Code Section 1789.3, users are entitled to the following specific consumer rights notice: the provider of the Site is the USC Keck School of Medicine, Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute. If you have any complaints regarding the Site or its content, questions or comments related to the Site, or would like to request further information regarding use of the Site or its content, you may contact us at:

USC Epstein Family Alzheimer’s Therapeutic Research Institute
Keck School of Medicine of USC
9860-80 Mesa Rim Road
San Diego, CA 92121
Email: ask@actcinfo.org

The Complaint Assistance Unit of the Division of Consumer Services of the California Department of Consumer Affairs may be contacted in writing at 1625 North Market Boulevard, Suite S202, Sacramento, CA 95834, or by telephone at (800) 952-5210 or (916) 445-1254.