Core A: Tissue and Pathology Core

TISSUE AND PATHOLOGY CORE: SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The Tissue & Pathology Core will coordinate efforts related to collection, processing, storage, and distribution of annotated human and murine biospecimens for all of the MD Anderson Sarcoma SPORE projects, including the projects from the Developmental Research Program (DRP) and Career Enhancement Program (CEP) awardees. The Core will be co-led by Alexander J. Lazar, M.D., Ph.D. and Wei-Lien (Billy) Wang M.P.H., M.D., two nationally reputed sarcoma pathologists with over a decade of close collaboration. The Tissue & Pathology Core will work with all SPORE Projects (including DRP and CEP projects), CCSG Cores, collaborator laboratories, and with the Administrative and Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Cores, to ensure maximum efficiency of tissue/derivatives. The Core will provide optimization of fresh tissue collection, analyte (DNA, RNA, protein) extraction from prospectively collected and archival tissue samples suitable for molecular and immunological interrogation, and the conduct of NanoString gene expression profiling. The samples and/or analytes isolated from biospecimen will be distributed to SPORE Projects and other investigators in accordance with Core operating procedures. Existing sarcoma biospecimen resources available in institutional tissue banks include snap frozen tumor tissue samples from over 4,000 sarcomas, with about 30% of these directly relevant to the SPORE Projects. Formalin fixed paraffin embedded specimens are available for over 8,500 sarcoma cases over just the last 15 years, including tissue microarrays from 15+ sarcoma types (4,000+ cases arrayed). In addition, the Core will provide histologic characterization, immunohistochemistry services, and interpretation guidelines for both preclinical samples from the mouse model studies in Projects 2 and 3, as well as serial human tissue biopsies obtained from the two clinical trials being conducted in Projects 2 and 3. Blood will also be processed for flow cytometry and exosome isolation in Projects 2 and 3. The Core will support Project 1 by providing expert pathological assessment of tissue samples used for whole genome studies as well as technical support for extraction of DNA from tissue and blood samples and submission to appropriate sequencing platforms. The Core will coordinate distribution of appropriate samples to investigators funded through the SPORE CEP and DRP. Core personnel, along with the Institutional Tissue Bank, will enter detailed information related to all processes of biospecimen collection, processing, qualification, distribution, and analyte extraction into the institutional biospecimen informatics platform known as Biospecimen Information Management System (BIMS™). This centralized resource will contribute significantly to the success of the multidisciplinary and translational research projects outlined in this proposal.