The mission of the DF/HCC Ovarian SPORE Tissue Bank and Pathology Core is to maximize the research use of clinical specimens available from DF/HCC patients in a confidential and ethical manner, provide state of the art research pathology services and expert morphologic interpretation of tissue slides and to maximize the cost effectiveness and quality of these research pathology services to the SPORE investigators and qualified investigators at other institutions. This mission will be achieved through the following specific aims: 1) Catalog existing operative tissue and clinical specimen banks at BIDMC, BWH, DFCI, and MGH and organize them to be uniform 2) Expand clinical specimen collection at BIDMC, BWH, and DFCI 3) Assure that all specimen collection occurs and data is stored and shared under approved human subjects and other regulatory guidelines. 4) Create the infrastructure for a """"""""virtually-unified"""""""" ovarian specimen bank able to identify and supply specimens needed for a particular research project together with the level of clinical identifiers appropriate for the project. 5) Provide research pathology services to SPORE investigators. Existing banks at DFCI already provide a variety of high quality clinical specimens including snap frozen and frozen OCT-embedded ovarian and normal tissue suitable for retrieval of DNA and RNA, fixed paraffin embedded ovarian and normal tissue, and frozen blood components, body fluids and urine. To maximize their suitability and availability for research, collection and storage methods will be made uniform and the specimens catalogued. Collection of clinical specimens occurring at MGH and DFCI will be expanded to other DF/HCC institutions under rigorous human subject's guidelines. To achieve the critical goal to create a """"""""virtually-unified"""""""" bank, data collection methods will be standardized and a secure, centralized database created. A governance system will be established to permit a fair, timely evaluation of requests for research materials with determination of level of linkage to clinical data permitted by the informed consent agreements. The DF/HCC Tissue Core will be lead by pathologists and clinical researchers who have a track record of collaborative research documented by nearly 70 joint publications.
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