CORE 012 ? TRANSLATIONAL PATHOLOGY SHARED RESOURCE PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Obtaining, processing and staining of tissue specimens and quantification and interpretation of tissue biomarkers are central to the performance of modern cancer research. The Translational Pathology Shared Resource (TPSR) provides Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center (VICC) investigators with a full range of pathology services and technologies to support cancer research. The TPSR capitalizes on Vanderbilt expertise, bringing together key components to provide a comprehensive array cancer tissue services for VICC investigators including research histology, veterinary and human pathology expertise, tissue acquisition and digital histology. Through a partnership with the Western Division of the NCI-funded Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN), the TPSR coordinates the procurement and processing of human tissues obtained from both the operating room and clinical settings under IRB-approved protocols. The TPSR provides full research histopathology services, including processing, embedding, sectioning and staining of both human and animal model tissues. The TPSR also performs a wide range of automated immunostaining protocols that can be customized to investigator needs. Both paraffin and frozen sectioning of specimens can be performed for investigators. The TPSR houses a robotic system for automated assembly of tissue microarrays from multiple tissue blocks, which provides an exceptional new capability for VICC researchers. The Shared Resource also provides investigators with access to laser capture microdissection instrumentation for isolation of discrete cell populations from tissue sections. As an adjunct to the array of staining and immunostaining procedures available, the TPSR provides automated whole-slide scanning of both brightfield and fluorescence staining, as well as access to quantitative software for digital image analysis. In addition, TPSR provides investigators working with animal models access to comparative pathology services which includes a full line of clinical pathology diagnostic services and pathology phenotyping of mouse models for VICC investigators. Finally, veterinary and human pathologists provide consultative services in both human and animal pathology for cancer research studies. The TPSR provides the full range of pathology services, advanced technologies and expertise to support all aspects of cancer research related to the analysis of human and animal tissue specimens, and thus facilitate leading cancer discovery.
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