The Translational Core is designed to meet the needs of clinical, basic, and population scientists who require the analysis of human tumors for their research. This need has been made manifest by a large increase in the utilization of tissue sectioning and analysis services by Cancer Center members. Indeed, the ability to gain access to and study human tumor tissue was rated as of """"""""highest priority"""""""" for expanded development in the Cancer Center strategic plan. The Core will provide immunohistochemistry (IHC), immunofluorescence (IF), and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays for frozen and paraffin embedded tissues, design and histologically confirm tissue micro-arrays from paraffin blocks, characterize and validate monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies for use on tissue sections, and carry out somatic mutational analysis of DNA. The Core will be co-led by Drs. Lynn Dressier, a leader in the use of tissue analysis in translational research, and Leigh Thome, a Pathologist certified in Molecular Pathology. The Core adds value by providing a centralized resource--expertise, quality controlled, assured and validated procedures, state-of-the-art equipment, histopathologic evaluation, and access to human specimens- to perform and interpret morphology-based assays and somatic DNA mutation analysis. Access to and utilization of this core facility will promote the translation of basic science findings to human cancers and allow clinical investigators to perform innovative clinical trials using molecular correlates and endpoints. It will serve population scientists with large numbers of samples requiring morphologic or tissue-based assays. It will also serve as an essential component for molecular epidemiology studies. Future plans include the acquisition of additional equipment for automation and the development of RNA extraction techniques from paraffin blocks.
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