The purpose of the VICC Human Tissue Acquisition and Pathology Shared Resource (HTAP) is to provide support for Cancer Center investigators engaged in translational and basic science research efforts. It provides researchers with access to a wide variety of human specimens and tissues. The objectives of HTAP are to collect, process, bank, and distribute remnant human tissues (both normal and neoplastic) from routine surgical resections and autopsies for use by peer-reviewed funded investigators of the VICC in basic, clinical, and translational research studies; provide the highest quality of well-characterized fresh, frozen, and fixed tissues suitable for a wide range of molecular, biochemical, and tissue analyses; assist with collection and banking of biopsy material for specific cancer-related clinical trials and other projects; provide, as feasible, human tissues to other peer-reviewed funded Vanderbilt University investigators who are not members of the VICC, and to newly-established investigators who have yet to receive funding; and to perform quality control to ensure that the relevant tissue is supplied to the researcher, and that tissues are suitable for the planned research (e.g., not necrotic or involved by unsuspected disease processes.) New services offered by HTAP include laser capture microscopy, tissue array block construction, and access to the BLISS automated software/imaging system. In addition, tissue collection efforts have been extensively refined and new preservation methods offered. Dr. Kay Washington is the Director of the Human Tissue Acquisition and Pathology Shared Resource and is engaged in a number of collaborative projects with VICC investigators. She is assisted by a staff with decades of experience in offering these services, and partners with the Bioinformatics Shared Resource, under the direction of Dr. Mary Edgerton, to develop easily-customized tools for specimen tracking and linkage of genomic, proteomic and biologic data to tissue specimens.
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