The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a lower court ruling that tissue and blood samples donated by patients to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis for prostate cancer research belong to the institution and cannot be reclaimed by the donors. In the first ruling to date by a federal appeals court on research participants' ownership rights in their tissue samples, the three-judge panel said the donors voluntarily made an irrevocable gift to Washington University when they donated their biological samples and, therefore, the specimens belong to the school. The original case, Washington University vs. William J. Catalona, centered on whether tissue donors can reclaim or redirect the use of samples donated to a research institution to another institution or specific researcher.