SERVICES

Biobank

• The Biobank is MSK’s central facility for the collection, processing, storage, and distribution of human tissue and biofluid specimens. The main objective of this service is to provide investigators with a reliable and adequate supply of optimally procured and well-annotated specimens for cancer research.
• Specimen collection procedures are standardized to ensure consistency and optimal biospecimen preservation for a variety of assays and a wide range of future uses.
• Tissue specimens are procured in the context of routine clinical care and after all requirements for proper diagnostic procedures are satisfied. Tissue specimens are harvested and evaluated by clinical pathologists or pathology assistants, assuring investigators of properly sampled and accurately diagnosed research material.
• Lesional and matched normal tissues are routinely frozen in liquid nitrogen without further additives. Select tissue samples are dissociated and viably cryopreserved as single-cell suspensions.
• The Biobank also fulfils procurement requests for prospective fresh biospecimen collections for immediate distribution to individual research laboratories.
• Hematological samples, including bone marrow and blood (frequently both pre- and post-treatment), are processed into frozen mononuclear cells, granulocytes, plasma, serum, and buffy coat aliquots. The biobank also stores urine and other body fluid aliquots.
• The Biobank abides by all governmental and institutional regulations. The central tissue repository is licensed by the New York State Department of Health and accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). All biospecimen collection and distribution protocols have been approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Histology Service

• The histology service is designed to aid in the selection of appropriate specimens for tissue analyses. Services include routine histologic procedures, such as tissue and cell pellet embedding, sectioning blocks, macrodissection, and routine staining. Highly trained histology technicians section frozen and paraffin-embedded blocks for use in microdissection, immunohistochemistry, and in situ hybridization, as well as for DNA, RNA, or protein extraction.
• Trained research pathologists are embedded in the Core and provide investigators with pathology expertise, which frequently include the selection of appropriate tissue specimens for the study and interpretation of histological and immunohistochemical stains.
• The histology service offers laser capture microdissection for the purification of specific tissue components for molecular analysis as well as tissue microarray construction (TMA) for the preparation of custom-made multi-tissue blocks. TMA technology allows rapid visualization of molecular targets in hundreds of tissue specimens. TMAs represent an efficient tool in translational research through the assessment of clinically relevant markers for therapeutic response and prognosis. TMAs are also particularly useful for spatial biology and multiplexing applications.
• The histology service also assists research investigators with access to FFPE material from the clinical-diagnostic Pathology archives. All human biospecimen usage are approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).

Immunohistochemistry (IHC) Service

• The Immunohistochemistry service provides innovative high-quality automated IHC procedures with >500 fully characterized antibodies on formalin fixed tissues.
• The IHC service has developed a matrix of experimental conditions to efficiently test and optimize novel antibodies by using multiple normal tissue controls or by identifying appropriate tumor tissue-specific controls.
• The service specializes in IHC singleplex and IHC co-expression research protocols.  All human biospecimen usage are approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• The IHC service works closely with the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine to offer clinically validated IHC assays as research assays on the Core’s IHC platforms.
• Clinical and research pathologists, in close collaboration with the individual investigators and Core staff, evaluate morphology and staining results.