The major objective of the Tissue Procurement and Biospecimens Core Facility (TPF) is to support and enhance cancer-related translational, clinical, population and basic science research by providing UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center members with a centralized, coordinated, quality-controlled, quality-assured facility for procurement, processing, storage, and distribution of normal and malignant human specimens. Included in these services is the processing of blood for serum, plasma, packed red blood cells, and buffy coats. In addition, the facility serves as a centralized facility for DNA extraction from whole blood and buccal swabs, in support of several large population-based epidemiologic studies, as well as clinical research studies. Additional biospecimens collected and stored by the facility, especially in support of epidemiology studies, include fat biopsies, toenails, urine, and other body fluids as defined by the research study. The Facility works with each investigator to accommodate specific needs and applications, including planning and performing experiments to optimize specimen handling. The TPF coordinates and integrates activities with several other cores, including the Translational Core, the Genomics Core, the Proteomics Core, and the High Throughput Genotyping Core, further facilitating investigators' studies. In addition to peer- reviewed investigators, the facility serves to support many pilot studies and institutionally supported studies that establish or confirm preliminary data for subsequent submission for peer-reviewed grants, especially for newly recruited clinical faculty. The core facility's activities are integrated with the efforts of the UNC LCCC Clinical Protocol Office, supporting clinical ontology trials, both institutional and national, that require specimen collection, processing, storage, and shipping. The facility is also highly integrated with the Biostatistics and Data Monitoring Core. These efforts support further translation of research from bench to bedside. The Facility has developed and implemented policies and procedures to address medical, legal and ethical issues, as well as scientific and logistic review of proposals requesting use of the Facility services. A customized database system serves to track, monitor and inventory banked specimens, integrating quality assurance and pathologic information using an honest broker model.
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