BIOREPOSITORY AND TISSUE RESEARCH FACILITY ? PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Biorepository and Tissue Research Facility (BTRF) makes human biospecimens available for basic, translational, and clinical research. It is the major conduit through which human tissue specimens are transferred from the Pathology, Surgery, and other clinical departments to research labs at the University of Virginia (UVA), and is the major processor of human biofluids (tissue, blood, urine) in support of clinical trials at UVA. In addition, this facility provides standard histology services and complex histology-based analytic techniques for animal models of cancer as well as human tissues, including tissue microarray construction, laser microdissection, immunohistochemistry, RNA in situ hybridization and digital slide scanning with automated image analysis. Expert histopathology support from Board-certified Anatomic Pathologists is provided for these activities through this Shared Resource. The biorepository and analytic services are often vertically integrated with each other, including procedures in other core facilities, to allow for ?one-stop shopping? for investigators carrying out translational or clinical cancer research. Examples include next generation sequencing or RNA microarray analysis carried out in the Biomolecular Analysis Facility from nucleic acids extracted from tissue samples by the BTRF; and circulating tumor cell analysis carried out in the Flow Cytometry Core from blood samples processed in the BTRF. In the last CCSG competitive renewal in 2011, the BTRF was awarded a score of ?Outstanding Merit?, since then the BTRF has added new services, new instruments, and new staff with extended operating hours. BTRF services make possible new insights into cancer disease mechanisms by the analysis of tissues and biofluids, assist in the discovery and validation of new clinical cancer biomarkers, and support clinical trials of novel diagnostic tests and therapies for cancer.
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