Services

Click here for a full service list across all School of Medicine Research Cores

• Human tissue procurement from clinical specimens and preservation
  • Surgical resection specimens (targeted collection of remnant material)
  • Autopsy specimens (targeted collection of remnant material)
  • Study-specific collection of non-remnant material (consented)
• Banked specimens for future research (>30,000 specimens available)
• Biofluid sample processing
  • Clinical trial and biobanking support for UVA investigators-initiated studies
• Enzymatic dissociation & viable freezing of tissue samples
• Peripheral blood leukocyte (PBL) Ficoll isolation & viable freezing
• Extraction of nucleic acids and protein from tissue samples  including microcapillary electrophoresis and RNA amplification & labeling

Within our secure biospecimen storage facilities, the BTRF offers a range of temperature storage options including liquid nitrogen, –80°C, and –20°C for the safe and secure storage of your biological samples.

• Our sites operate 24/7 monitoring/continuous alert systems by SOM system control to safeguard your samples at their optimal condition.
• All units are connected to SOM emergency power to maintain your sample storage conditions in the event of power disruption or mechanical failure.
• Temperature probes are calibrated annually.
• On-call personnel 24/7 to move samples to other freezer, in the event of mechanical failure.
• Biospecimen storage can be integrated as part of an overall study or requested as a stand-alone service.
• For questions regarding biospecimen storage services, please contact: Pat Pramoonjago at 434-982-0487 or pp6f@virginia.edu

To initiate your request for biospecimen storage, please submit this form.

For basic histology services (processing/embedding/sectioning) involving animal tissues, please use the Research Histology Core Facility. The BTRF does accept animal tissues for IHC, CISH, and other advanced applications.

• Paraffin embedding of human tissue specimens
• Histologic sectioning of fixed human tissue specimens
• Cryostat sectioning of frozen human tissue specimens
  • Training on instrument
  • Equipment usage
• Cytospin preparation of fluids containing cells
• Histology-guided macrodissection to enrich for specific cell types
• Immunohistochemistry (IHC)
• • Performed on human and animal tissues
  • Panel of “standard” antibodies (for more information click here)
  • Custom immunohistochemistry (Investigator-supplied antibody)
• Chromogenic RNA In Situ Hybridization (CISH)
• GeoMx® DSP services
• Custom tissue microarray manufacture
• Tissue microarray of the most common human carcinomas (159 cases)