Tissue Collection and Banking Facility (TCBF)

Director:  William E. Grizzle, MD, PhD

Department/Center Association:  Pathology/Comprehensive Cancer Center (CCC)

Established:  1978

 

Mission

            The Comprehensive Cancer Center and the UAB Department of Pathology sponsor the Tissue Collection and Banking Facility (TCBF).  From UAB associated hospitals, normal, malignant, benign, and diseased fresh human tissues and fluids are obtained and are preserved appropriate to the protocol.  This preservation can include fresh storage in media or saline, snap-frozen storage in liquid nitrogen, freezing in OCT for frozen section preparation, or preservation in a fixative of choice.  The TCBF can also provide procurement of control tissues including uninvolved tissues or matched tissues from patients with benign disease processes.  The histology laboratory can provide paraffin blocks and/or stained or unstained slides.  In addition, investigators can obtain access to rare tissues through the national Cooperative Human Tissue Network.

            All samples are identified by control numbers to protect patient confidentiality.  A copy of the surgical pathology report from which all patient identifiers have been removed will be provided to the researcher.  If requested, the TCBF will attempt to obtain additional information such as follow-up, clinic-pathologic, and demographic features.  The facility is funded by the National Cancer Institute and is regulated by the UAB Institutional Review Board (IRB) regarding human use approval for use of human tissues.  

Facility Description

            The TCBF occupies approximately 1,500 square feet on the 4th floor of the Zeigler Research Building.  Its facilities include two laminar flow hoods, liquid nitrogen vapor phase freezers, one -80o freezer, a steam autoclave, a crushed ice machine, a refrigerator/freezer, a complete histology laboratory, and a LAN-networked computer system.

Research Information

            The TCBF can provide normal, malignant, benign, or diseased remnant human tissues and/or fluids from surgical resections, autopsies, or clinical procedures for IRB-approved researchers.  Although the facility operates as a prospective service specializing in the preparation of samples to protocol, limited banked frozen and paraffin-embedded samples may be available.  Investigators are required to complete an application and provide a copy of their IRB approval as well as a brief description of the project for which the requested samples will be utilized. 

Samples are provided for research purposes only.  The following processing fees are to offset processing costs and should be included in all grant applications:

 

Service                                              Processing Fee

Sample processing (each)                 $20.00

Paraffin block                                      $10.00

H&E stained paraffin section              $  7.00

Unstained paraffin section                  $  5.00

H&E stained cryostat section             $10.00

First cut of cryostat section                $  6.00

Repeat cuts of cryostat block             $  4.00

Chart review                                        $25.00/hour

 

Other histology services such as touch preps and special stains are available.  Also, tissue microarrays can be constructed and microdissections can be arranged.  Please contact the TCBF to obtain prices or arrange for these special services.

 

Contact Information

            Assistant Director:  Katherine C. Sexton, MBA

            Email:  sexton@uab.edu

Phone:  205-934-6071

Campus Address:  ZRB 449, zip 0007

 

Website: 

Local UAB Facility:  http://www3.ccc.uab.edu/show.asp?durki=59566

Cooperative Human Tissue Network:  http://chtn.nci.nih.gov/

 

 

Approved by:  Katherine C. Sexton, MBA, Assistant Director
Date:  April 2, 2008

 

 

Click here to return to the SOM Research Web Site's home page.