The overall goal of the University of Chicago Cancer Research Center (UCCRC) is to improve theprevention, detection, and treatment of cancer through our basic, clinical, translational, and populationresearch activities. Therefore, the effective procurement, storage, use, and analysis of humanbiospecimens are of critical importance. Furthermore, the maintenance and expansion of these state-ofthe-art biospecimen procurement and storage facilities is vital to the future success of our cancerprograms. To address these critical needs, the existing Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM) CoreFacility was dramatically expanded and renamed the Human Tissue Resource Center (HTRC) Core.The mission of the HTRC is to provide cancer investigators with a centralized infrastructure to optimizethe efficiency and costs related to research involving human biospecimens. The HTRC now comprisesthree integrated components: Biospecimen Bank (BSB), Laser Capture Microdissection (LCM), andPathology Image Analysis (PIA). Currently, the HTRC provides services for the collection of clinicallyannotatedhuman tissues, as well as blood, serum, plasma, and saliva for cancer-related research. Inaddition, the Core provides collaborative support and services for histopathology, LCM, tissuemicroarray preparation (TMA), and nucleic acid extraction. In this way, we provide a coordinated,centralized, and dedicated program for the procuring, processing, dispersing, and assessing all types ofbiospecimens. Over 39 peer-reviewed UCCRC investigators across six Scientific Programs routinely usethe HTRC, totaling 70% of Facility usage. Many of these investigators use several of the Facility'scomponents.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 668 publications
