Tissue Resources

Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland OH

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

TISSUE RESOURCES SHARED RESOURCE PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT During the past decade, human tissues collected at the University Hospitals (UH) and the Cleveland Clinic (CC) have been supplied to researchers involved in cancer and other healthcare research through IRB-approved, government-funded, organized tissue procurement facilities. This effort, the Tissue Resources Shared Resource (TRSR), is an established resource for human biospecimens within the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center (Case CCC) and supports standard operating procedures (SOPs) for quality, cost effective disease-based biobanking at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)/UH/CC. The goals of the TRSR are to coordinate human biospecimen collection that adheres to regulatory guidelines, to provide access to quality annotated human tissue samples for all cancer center members through a central biorepository, to offer expert technical services for histology, immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and TMA preparation, and to provide consultation and guidance to researchers as they design their tissue-based experiments. Human biospecimens from UH are collected by the Human Tissue Procurement Facility (HTPF) under the medical directorship of Marta Couce. Human biospecimens from CC are collected by the Pathology Biorepository under the medical directorship of Hannah Gilmore and by Daniel Lindner. Collectively, the objective of the Tissue SR biorepositories are to collect, prepare, and distribute high quality human tissue samples (including solid tissues, blood and other biospecimens) to researchers on campus and organized tissue procurement networks. The Case CCC TRSR coordinates cross-institutional efforts to provide Case CCC members access to disease groups, including GI, genitourinary, breast, sarcoma, lung, melanoma, and CNS cancers. In 2023, the HTPF site procured 2884 biospecimens for research from UH, and the CC biorepository site procured 2066 biospecimens for research. Human tissue samples for research are collected prospectively from surgeries and other hospital procedures under IRB-approved discarded and consented tissue protocols. Following examination by the pathologist, tissues that would otherwise be discarded are collected by the biorepository team. Normal, benign, diseased, pre- cancerous and cancerous tissue are collected from a wide variety of organ sites to fulfill active tissue requests. Specimens are prepared according to researchers' specific requirements and may be fresh, frozen, fixed, or in block or slide form. Because tissue procurement operates primarily as a prospective service, most of the tissues are not pre-existing at the time the tissue request is submitted. However, certain clinical samples without active requests are stored in a biorepository for eventual assignment to researchers in future studies. In order to serve the greater research community, underutilized tissue resources will also be provided to external academic and commercial researchers conducting basic and applied medical research.