Descriptions of the specimens and services for the Biorepository Shared Resource.

Tissue

Fresh tissue (tumor and normal):

  • Dispersed to researchers between 20 minutes and three hours after surgical removal
  • After pathologic evaluation, specimens are kept refrigerated in RPMI media until pick-up
  • To be notified when pre-op consent is obtained from patients with tumors at sites of interest, please call 916-734-3026

Frozen tissue (tumor and normal):

  • Dispersed to researchers within five working days after UC Davis Path Biorepository Utilization Committee approval (when applicable)
  • Frozen tissues are stored at -150 C in  a Panasonic cryogenic chest freezer in DNAase- and RNAase-free sterile vials

Biological fluids

Bone marrow aspirates:

  • Dispersed to researchers within five working days
  • Frozen at -70°C in DNAase- and RNAase-free sterile vials in a protective freezing solution to ensure cell viability

Serum and plasma:

  • Dispersed to researchers within five working days
  • Dispersed in 0.5 milliliter aliquots
  • Coded specimens are stored at -70°C in sterile DNAase- and RNAase-free cryovials

Whole blood (pre- and post-op):

  • Dispersed to researchers within 60 minutes of blood draw

    Tissue microarray (TMA)

    Selected organ sites:

    • Unstained sections dispersed to researchers within five working days
    • Existing library of cancer organ-site TMAs include breast, colon, kidney, lung, pancreas and many more; please contact the shared resource at 916-734-3026 for more information

    Custom-made TMAs:

    • Require several weeks for design, preparation of slides/blocks and construction
    • Please contact the shared resource to discuss and design TMAs for specific research questions
    Routine histology
    • Dispersed and/or returned to researchers (excluding clinical trials) within five to ten working days
    • Processing, embedding and sectioning of fixed wet tissue
    • Hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained paraffin sections
    • Unstained paraffin sections

      Immunohistochemistry (IHC)

      • Unstained sections on slides suitable for IHC
      • IHC with commercially available/validated antibodies
      • IHC on TMA sections
      • Samples are dispersed and/or returned to researcher within 10 to 15 working days (for staining with previously validated antibodies)

      Consultative services

      • Administrative
      • Limited annotated data includes age, gender, race/ethnicity, and diagnosis
      • Extensive annotated data includes age, gender, race/ethnicity, diagnosis, medication and EMR recorded clinical outcome data (requests for extensive annotated data may require several weeks)
      • Paraffin block retrieval
      • Pathology consulting