TISSUE RESOURCES CORE FACILITY

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Linked publications, trials & patents

Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY (See instructions): The mission of the Case CCC Tissue Resources Core Facility is to coordinate five services: tissue procurement, biorepository, tissue processing, histology, and immunohistochemistry (IHC). Tissue procurement prospectively collects, prepares, and distributes human tissue samples and associated deidentified data directly to investigators and/or to the biorepository, tissue processing, histology, and IHC components. Within these components, services such as tissue microarrays (TMAs), immunofluorescence, in situ hybridization, microscopy and digital imaging, and laser capture microdissection (LCM) are provided for both procured human tissue and animal research tissues transferred to the Core by investigators. The Core collaborates with researchers to assist them as needed in the IRB approval process, to advise them on sample availability, and to perform special tissue collection, dissection, and processing procedures. Malignant, pre-malignant benign, diseased, and normal tissues are obtained from surgical resections and autopsies. Normal adjacent tissue and tissues from different organ sites from the same donor are also available to researchers. All work is conducted in a manner that preserves sample integrity, protects donor identity, and facilitates the minimization of disruptions to surgical operating rooms and surgical pathology units during the collection process. The Tissue Resources Core is a critical resource for projects requiring human tissues for research and services that are not easily duplicated in other laboratories, such as automated IHC; or are significantly limited when accessed through a resource such as clinical pathology laboratories of area hospitals. Members from all the research programs use the services on a large scale. Access to clinical archived FFPE tissues has high impact on research projects, since large numbers of samples with clinical annotations and outcome data may be obtained within a short period of time. In continuation of its record of contributions to the advancement of science in past years, the Tissue Resources Core facilitates the research Case CCC members conduct. Services and materials provided by the Core have assisted research in gastrointestinal, breast, female genital, hematopoietic, lung, brain and prostate cancer. During the period 2006-2012 there were >74 publications from Case CCC members in journals such as J Pathol, Prostate, Oncogene, Clin Cancer Research, Neoplasia, Int J Cancer, Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers, and Lung Cancer.