Cooperative Human Tissue Network

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT The Cooperative Human Tissue Network (CHTN) was established as a mechanism to provide the scientific community with high-quality human biospecimens for research. The CHTN allows investigators to access the biospecimens they need to perform cutting-edge research, including basic and early translational cancer research, and laboratory assay development. As one of six CHTN Divisions, the Pediatric Division of the CHTN (pCHTN) will receive, process, and distribute scientifically relevant biospecimens collected from children, adolescents, and young adults. These biospecimens can include malignant, benign, disease-involved, and uninvolved biospecimens. The pCHTN seeks to directly promote and support cutting-edge research in the diagnosis, biologic behavior, and treatment of acute and chronic diseases including cancer by pursuing the following specific aims: 1. To leverage the relationship with the Children’s Oncology Group , in addition to Nationwide Children’s Hospital Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine to procure a wide range of well-annotated biospecimens from a variety of both cancerous and non-cancerous conditions, including biospecimens from rare tumor types. 2. To support cutting-edge research by distributing high-quality biospecimens to approved investigators. 3. To maximize limited biospecimen resources and provide economies of scale by performing additional processing of biospecimens (e.g., nucleic acid extraction, tissue microarray creation, digital images of stained tissue slides, etc.) 4. To maintain a reliable and robust Quality Management Program that monitors all aspects of biospecimen collection, processing, storage, and distribution in an effort to continuously evaluate and improve our operational capabilities, assess best practices, ensure investigator satisfaction, and protect the privacy and confidentiality of those individuals from whom the biospecimens and data were obtained. 5. To actively contribute to the CHTN by participation and collaboration in Network interactions, particularly in fulfilling highly customized or non-standard requests, participating in collaborative Network activities, and coordinating or developing new strategies to ensure that the CHTN remains responsive to the needs of the scientific community.