Applying for Tissue Microarrays from the Resource

The CBCTR application process for progression tissue microarray slides is simple and straightforward. The process is outlined below:

1. You submit an application to the resource. This letter is to tell us about your research plan to help us determine whether progression or prognostic array slides are appropriate to answer the question you are posing.
2. The CBCTR will review your application as rapidly as possible. If they have any questions about your letter we will contact you directly (via e-mail or telephone) to discuss their concerns.
3. Once your application is reviewed, you will be informed of the outcome and if approved, when you can expect to receive the slides you requested. No further application will be required.

A Sample Application is available to view, based on an actual application that was received and approved by the Research Evaluation Panel.

NOTE TO INVESTIGATORS CONSIDERING AN APPLICATION FOR TMAs:
All TMA sections are inspected by the CBCTR prior to shipment and judged to be of acceptable quality. Please note that it is typical for some spots on the TMA to be missing or not to contain the intended target tissue. These difficulties are inherent to the TMA construction process and the nature of breast tissue, and are not unique to CBCTR TMAs. Our quality control studies have indicated that missing or incorrect target tissue may occur with a frequency as high as approximately 25-30%, depending on the depth at which the sections were cut from the TMA block. The TMAs have been designed with these rates in mind, and the number of cases represented on the TMA has been increased to account for the expected rate of unusable cores. You might also observe some distortion of the sections and some rolling or folding of certain tissue spots, particularly for the larger DCIS and normal tissue spots. It is our experience that these distortions generally do not significantly limit the ability to obtain reliable assay readings. Additional spot loss may occur during the assay procedure, with the rate of loss dependent on the assay conditions. Customer feedback indicates that our TMAs perform well for most immunostaining methods and in situ hybridization assays.

It is recommended that the freshly cut TMA sections should be stored in the dark at 4 °C immediately upon receipt and used promptly. The CBCTR can coordinate cutting and shipping to accommodate the investigator’s assay schedule.

The CBCTR cannot accept returns of unused TMAs.

This page was last updated on:
Wednesday, November 5, 2008 at 07:37:03 PM
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