The Tissue Procurement Facility (TPF) was established in 1993 to support research using human tissue. There is limited availability of matched malignant and normal human tissues paired with vital clinical information from national distribution labs. The TPF was established with support from the Institution and from the Cancer Center. Since its inception, there has been a continued increase in the collection and distribution of these tissues to researchers at the University. The Tissue Procurement Facility performed 3 main functions at the time of the last grant review: (1) collection of matched tumor and normal tissues; (2) preservation and storage of tissue in either quick-frozen tissue fragments or viable cryopreserved cell suspensions; (3) collection and distribution of clinical data pertaining to specimens. Since the last renewal, the Facility has added a number of new services: (4) providing informed consenting services to investigators for blood or tissue collection; (5) isolation and cryopreservation of peripheral blood lymphocytes from whole blood; (6) tissue banking for future uses that may not be defined at present; and (7) histologic services that provide routine quality assurance studies on all tissue specimens collected. With regard to the last service, the TPF has recently initiated a collaboration and staff sharing agreement with the University of Virginia's laboratory of NIH-funded Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN). This provides greater staff support from surgical pathology services and facilitates the histologic assessment of tissue samples. Presently the Facility actively collects tissue to support 28 different protocols here at the University, representing the work of 21 different researchers in 12 different departments. Currently 98% of the use of the core is by Cancer Center investigators.
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