Contact
Please contact our Director, Behjatolah Karbassi, Ph.D., at KarbassiBehjatolahM@uams.edu, or our ExPath Core Lab Manager, Jennifer James, at JamesJenniferD@uams.edu, or our Tissue Biorepository and Procurement Service (TBAPS) Project Manager, Rémelle Eggerson, at EggersonRemelleM@uams.edu, to discuss how we can support your research.
Personnel
Karbassi is the Director of the Translational Pathology Shared Resource. He is an Associate Professor of Pathology at UAMS. Karbassi is a faculty member in the Division of Experimental Pathology and has over 15 years of experience in experimental pathology.
- Jennifer James, BS, HTL (ASCP), QIHC, CRS, Experimental Pathology Core Laboratory Manager – James serves as the Laboratory Manager of the Experimental Pathology (ExPath) Core Laboratory. She is a certified histotechnologist with over 27 years of experience in tissue processing and analysis and has been with the Translational Pathology Shared Resource since its beginning. She is responsible for daily operations, including scheduling, billing, records, routine histology, special stains, immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence, and imaging.
- Rémelle Eggerson, BS, CRS, TBAPS Project Manager – Eggerson serves as the TBAPS Project Manager and is responsible for overseeing daily operations, including purchasing, inventory, SOP implementation, consenting, tissue banking, and sample processing. She also oversees the activities of all TBAPS staff. She has over 14 years of experience in TBAPS and 12 years of prior research experience.
Major Services
The Translational Pathology Shared Resource is comprised of two cores. Each core offers a specific set of services to users in the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute and at UAMS. The ExPath Core Laboratory provides researchers with centralized, comprehensive histological services, including tissue processing and embedding, tissue sectioning (frozen and paraffin-embedded), tissue staining (H&E, immunohistochemical, immunofluorescent, and special stains), digital slide scanning, multispectral imaging and analysis, and pathology consultation. TBAPS is an institution-wide tissue procurement facility that coordinates the donation, processing, storage, and dissemination of tissue specimens and related data. TBAPS maintains a repository of human specimens accessible to the UAMS research community and uses an Internal Review Board-approved protocol and a general consent form for consenting patients, collecting samples, and providing those samples to researchers who have the appropriate approvals. Solid tissues and fluid specimens (serum or urine) are stored in liquid nitrogen tanks. Solid tissues may also be distributed as fresh tissues or processed and stored formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded. The specimen collection has over 16,500 tissue samples, along with de-identified pathology data available for a variety of organs representing an extensive list of diagnoses. Researchers may browse the collection using an online database management software (OpenSpecimen) to search donor demographics, diagnosis, and/or other sample-related, de-identified data to identify and request specimens of interest. In 2019, the Translational Pathology Shared Resource acquired the Lambert Laboratory of Myeloma Genetics and now oversees the myeloma specimen repository (approx. 290,000 samples). Additionally, new myeloma patients are now consented for research using the TBAPS consent form. The shared resource also oversees the Arkansas Rural Community Health cohort for breast cancer, previously known as the Spit for the Cure (approx. 213,000 samples).
Technologies and Equipment
Major equipment provided by the ExPath Core Laboratory includes: Sakura Tissue-Tek VIP 6 AI Tissue Processor, Tissue-Tek Embedding Center, Leica CM3050S Research Cryostat, Micro HM 325 Microtome, Histo-Tek SL Automated Slide Stainer, Leica CV5030 Automated Glass Coverslipper, Leica Bond-Rx Fully Automated Research Stainer, Akoya Mantra™ Quantitative Pathology Workstation, inForm® Image Analysis Software, Aperio Scanscope CS2, Leica ImageScope Slide Viewer, and Leica Image Analysis Software. The ExPath Core Laboratory is well-equipped to process, paraffin embed, section, and evaluate frozen and paraffin-embedded tissues. Likewise, the laboratory provides a variety of standard pathological stains for histochemical analysis of tissues, including routine hematoxylin and eosin stains, as well as immunohistochemistry and immunostaining approaches for detecting specific targets of interest. Phenoptics™ analysis is conducted using the Mantra Quantitative Pathology Workstation and inForm image analysis software. Phenoptics integrates multiplexed immunohistochemistry and imaging to quantitatively capture systems biology data with cellular detail. Phenoptics reveals multi-parameter cellular expressions and interactions while retaining spatial context, offering insights into the complexity of tissue biology. The ability to spectrally unmix signals permits accurate resolution of up to nine fluorophores on a slide without loss of signal. Available digital imaging and analysis algorithms include color deconvolution, nuclear and membrane localization, and quantification positive pixel number and intensity.
The TBAPS facility is well-equipped to manage specimen acquisition and storage from a variety of sources. The facility has 11 liquid nitrogen freezers, 15 -80°C freezers, and two -20°C freezers for shorter-term storage. For processing, the facility has a table-top BD Accuri flow-cytometer and two RoboSep automated cell separators. Also available are centrifuges and biosafety cabinets for processing. TBAPS maintains a Domino/MAPI system for processing Arkansas Cancer Research Cohort samples and other fluids, and uses OpenSpecimen, a secure, open-source biobanking/ biorepository management software, to track tissue collection, patient consent, quality control, requests, and distribution.