Directors:

W. Grizzle, M.D., Ph.D. (Director)

A. Frost, M.D. (Associate Director)

UAB has extensive experience in collecting, processing, storing, and supplying a wide range of human breast tissues to support Breast SPORE research. Fresh, frozen, and paraffin preparations of tissues can be supplied as well as unstained tissue slides and other histology services. As part of the Breast SPORE, we: 1) established a bank of well characterized breast tumor specimens and matching uninvolved specimens from patients who have given specific informed consent for their tissues to be used in genetic and other types of research so tissue can be supplied to investigators along with clinical data including outcome. Through July 2004, the Tissue Resource component of the Core has obtained research specimens from about 1,100 patients with surgically resected diseases of the breast. From these patients, over 2,000 specimens of breast tissue have been stored in a bank of frozen solid tissues, including about 1,000 specimens of breast neoplasia; 2) A bank of bodily fluids from patients with diseases of the breast also is being developed; 3) The Core also has provided frozen, paraffin processed and/or microdissected specimens for SPORE intramural and extramural investigators wishing to study samples of breast neoplasia or normal and uninvolved breast tissues. The assay component of the Core offers investigators access to methods of morphological and pathological analysis that are too intensive with respect to pathologic support for many individual projects to support efficiently. Primarily the core provides light microscopic and immunocytochemical interpretation of animal and human tissues and cytologic materials and methods to detect gene products within cells and adjacent tissues. Investigators will have access to sophisticated techniques usually available only for human diagnostic pathology, including tissue microdissection, tissue arrays, antibody arrays, immunoelectron microscopy, computerized cytomorphometric analysis, special histology services, in situ hybridization, proteomic techniques including multidimensional electrophoresis and SELDI/MALDI-mass spectroscopy and flow cytometry. Advantages are that the core will enable unified purchase, characterization and utilization of a shared set of reagents. Centrally performed procedures will permit cross project comparisons of research on the same cases of breast cancer and will free investigators from duplication of basic work, allowing more productive work with the available resources and acceleration of experimental timetables.