CF 1: Biospecimen Repository Core

CF-1: Biospecimen Repository ABSTRACT The Biospecimen Repository Core (CF-1) is designed to provide support to the basic and translational research efforts of the SPORE. The CF-1 will play a central role in collecting, annotating, storing, distributing, and tracking of tissue and blood biospecimens from patients enrolled in research protocols.

The Core will provide SPORE investigators with expert histopathological evaluation of tumor samples both from patients enrolled on research protocols and from murine and xenograft models. Additionally it will assist in selecting appropriate formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissue and snap-frozen tissue for

research and pilot projects, as well as enable the creation of tissue microarrays (TMAs) for SPORE investigator studies. The Core will provide assistance in performing and interpreting immunohistochemical studies and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) assays. It will provide scanning and digital archiving of TMA images and reliable interpretation, scoring, and archiving of IHC

results from frozen, paraffin-embedded sections or TMA sections. The core will also provide systematic assessment of tumor response to therapy in human tissues and in sarcoma murine models, including interpretation of immunohistochemical markers for drug response, such as changes in kinase phosphorylation, proliferation inhibition, and induction of apoptosis. It also provides a centralized

resource for mutational annotation of sarcoma samples and cell lines using the IMPACT platform. Finally, it ensures linkage to the clinical sarcoma database in collaboration with project leaders, the bioinformatics core (CF-2 Qin/Socci) and the administrative core (Singer). This establishes a substantial

infrastructure and allows us to provide the required services in a cost-effective manner. The CF-1 is tightly integrated with the MSKCC Institutional Pathology Core (supported by the MSKCC Cancer Center Core Grant) and the Clinical Research Database (CRDB) managed by the administrative core.