TISSUE MICROARRAY

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

Tissue microarrays (TMAs) allow rapid screening of gene expression or chromosomal alterations from a large number of tissue samples on a single microscope slide. The TMA Core at Johns Hopkins was initially funded by the Prostate SPORE but has grown into a user-supported University Service Center/Shared Resource. The facility has constructed 398 TMAs for 26 investigators containing 53,304 tissue cores from tumors from the prostate, breast, pancreas, gall bladder, cervix, ovary, brain, liver, urinary bladder, salivary glands, esophagus, head and neck, thyroid and various cell lines. Users Have published 50 manuscripts involving JHU TMAs since 2003. Instrumentation is available to automatically capture high resolution digital images of TMA spots and perform semi-automated quantitative image analysis. The current number of composite TMA images stored server is 104,059 from 84 different TMAs. Users have access to a set of Open Source web-based software tools and backend database (TMAJ) that were developed to facilitate the all facets of research involving TMA technology from TMA design, data entry, image diagnosis, analysis, and publishing on the Internet. The Specific Aims of this Shared Resource are to support and speed translational cancer research by : 1) continuing to produce TMAs for Cancer Center members and others using human surgical and autopsy specimens, human specimens from clinical trials, xenografts, animal tissue specimens and cell lines as needed;2) providing a center for quantitative TMA image analysis of immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization and immunofluorescence;3) to continue to evaluate and update new TMA construction and imaging platforms;4) to enhance our information technology platform to improve ease of use, compliance with emerging CaBIG standards, including common data elements, and integration of new image analysis technologies with TMAJ.