The Human Tissue and Pathology Core (Shared Resource Category 4.06) of the Winship Cancer Institute (WCI) will be critical to the overall clinical and scientific success by enhancing tissue-based investigation through its procurement and distribution of human cancer specimens and its comprehensive histopathologic services. The Core is highly integrated within the WCI, serving individual and team science projects in all of the major programs and interfacing directly with the other Cores. The tissue banking component of the Core consists of an IRB-approved Human Tissue Procurement Service (HTPS), located within the Emory University Hospital and the WCI, with affiliated banking sites at Grady Memorial and Crawford Long Hospitals. Tissue procurement personnel are highly experienced in anatomic pathology and tumor banking protocols, with quality assurance of specimens provided by members of the Department of Pathology. Tumor and normal control tissues, along with other biospecimens associated with specialized protocols, are procured as frozen, fresh, fixed, embedded or other specialized preparation, and inventoried in caTissue Core, a caBIG tool for biospecimen repositories. Tissues are distributed to WCI investigators with IRBapproved protocols to further the clinical, translational, basic and epidemiologic research. Pathology services of the Core are provided by the Research Pathology Laboratory, a full service lab located on the 5th floor of the WCI building with experienced personnel and equipment for tissue processing, histological and immunohistochemical staining and analysis, laser capture microscopy, tissue microarrays and high throughput, automated image analysis for immunofluorescent and bright field microscopy. This lab is capable of processing high volumes of tissue samples derived from human disease and animal models and works in close collaboration with the other Cores and scientific programs of the WCI as demonstrated by research productivity and support of group science grants. The success of this Core is also highlighted by its contract with the NCI for collecting and processing glioblastoma specimens for The Cancer Genome Atlas Project. Together, the HTPS and the Research Pathology Lab provide centralized, efficent and high quality services to WCI investigators for acceleration of scientific discovery.
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