Overview
The University Of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) Paraffin Tissue Bank (PTB) was established to support clinical and translational research through easy access to formalin fixed, paraffin embedded human tissue. The PTB is under the leadership of the Department of Pathology & Microbiology at UNMC and housed in the Tissue Science Facility (TSF) in partnership with the Tissue Procurement Shared Resource (TPSR).
UNMC Paraffin Tissue Bank Video Tutorial: How to navigate in the NECARES site and request tissue from the PTB.
Services
The PTB is made up of paraffin-embedded human tissue from a variety of neoplastic and nonneoplastic diseases and paired normal samples. This excess formalin fixed material was not necessary for diagnosis and obtained from patients who have consented for scientists to use this extra material for research purposes. It is procured, processed, and embedded within 4 weeks of the completion of pathologic analysis after surgery. The bank currently contains over 2,000 blocks from a variety of organs and disease processes with new specimens being accrued every week.
Central to the PTB’s operation is the novel management system, NECARES. This online database offers UNMC researchers the means to search the bank’s inventory in a de-identified fashion, making it more efficient to find and acquire tissue for research projects. In the future, NECARES will give researchers the ability to perform searches on a large number of variables typically recorded in the pathology report, as well as PTB staff will be able to link to patient information with proper IRB approval and consent.
Requires an intro statement.
- Approved IRB protocol of study or exemption documentation.
- Complete and submit form.
- Contact PTB Tissue Services Technologist
Prioritization
Requests for material are reviewed by PTB staff. When significant volume of a tissue is requested by several investigators and supply is limited, the following algorithm is followed for assigning priority:
- Investigator-initiated, NCI-funded, peer-reviewed research
- Investigator-initiated, externally-funded, peer-reviewed research by funding source: State of Nebraska, etc.
- Investigator-initiated, funded and peer-reviewed research within UNMC
- Investigator-initiated, non-funded research
- Other