The Tissue Core (TC) serves as the central biorepository for Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC). Opened in 1992, the overall goal of the TC is to collect, process, store, and release high-quality, well-annotated biospecimens in support of basic, population, clinical, and translational research. TC biobanking activities at MCC have three foremost specific aims: 1. Serve as a centralized MCC biobanking resource for the collection, processing, and storage of human biospecimens in support of member science; 2. Implement biorepository best practices and quality metrics that ensure members' access to high quality biospecimens; 3. Develop and promote policies, guidelines, and procedures that facilitate members' efficient access to human biospecimens in a regulatory-compliant manner. The TC is housed in a 2,800 square foot facility and staffed by 20 highly trained Biorepository Specialists, Staff Scientists, a Research Pathologist, and a Manager that collectively support investigator-driven studies and the general banking operations. TC services are housed within three distinct sections: Intake & Acquisition, Sample Processing Lab, and Research Histology Services. Collectively, the three sections provided support for 206 protocols during fiscal year 2015 (FY15). The TC provides a wide variety of services such as collection of fresh frozen tissue, general histology, immunohistochemistry, nucleic acid extraction, construction of tissue microarrays (TMA), and release of archived biospecimens. Moreover, in support of investigator-driven studies, the TC incorporates specific needs and applications into project-specific SOPs, which often include contributing to the study design and collection strategies to optimize biospecimen handling. Overall, the TC offers 81 distinct biobanking and biospecimen-related services that meet or exceed NCI best practice recommendations and College of American Pathologists (CAP) Biorepository Accreditation standards to ensure high-quality biospecimen collection and processing validated through standardization, documentation, and emphasis on quality management. In addition to contributing to 173 publications during the past five years, the TC's high-quality biobanking infrastructure was instrumental in MCC's successful Lung SPORE, Skin SPORE, BMaP-3, TCGA, and CPTAC submissions. During the prior period, the TC provided significant support to members, demonstrated by a yearly average of nearly 73,000 service units, with FY15 representing a record year of usage with 85,708 service units. In FY15, TC services were utilized by 86 members distributed across all five CCSG programs, with 78% of total usage by peer-review-funded members.
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