sor str brochure

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BACKGROUND

SingHealth Tissue Repository (STR) facilitates basic, translational and clinical research at SingHealth and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. It is the largest research tissue repository in Singapore.

STR is guided by the SingHealth Tissue Repository Committee comprising practicing clinicians, research scientists, lawyers and the Chairman of the Centralised Institutional Review Board (CIRB). The chairman advises the committee on the development and implementation of biospecimen banking policies and guidelines. The Committee oversees the development with STR to review and approve requests to collect and access specimens.

CORE STRENGTHS

We maintain a collection of tumour tissue with consent from patients and matches normal tissue controls and blood where available. Tissue samples are harvested with a minimum of warm ischaemia time in the operating theatres, snap frozen and stored in vapour phase liquid nitrogen at -196oC. We perform histological examinations to determine the tumour content and assess nucleic acid quality in selected cases by spectrophotometry, gel electrophoresis and RNA/DNA quality score.

KEY OBJECTIVES

Provide a well-managed tissue repository for researchers in SingHealth and Singapore through data security, quality assurance and ethical standards.

Ensure proper harvesting, processing and storage of tissue and biospecimens, in accordance with national guidelines and international best practices.

Encourage collaboration and synergies in research e�orts by providing a platform for researchers to share resources and experiences.

Provide tissue-based research services and engage in R&D for tissue preservation techniques and research resource management.

CORE SERVICES

STR’s biobank supports both scheduled and unscheduled collections. It provides a ‘hostelling service’ for researchers who require a facility to process and store bio-resources, for the duration of their projects.A scheduled collection includes harvesting tissue and/or processing blood samples.

An unscheduled collection involves regularly harvesting tissue (mainly malignancies) from consenting patients who undergo surgery, regardless of whether there is an ongoing study. These samples go into our tissue bank.

We meet the needs of research projects involving �ow cytometric studies, construction of cell lines and xenografts, all of which require the use of freshly harvested cells and tissue.

Requesting for Tissue Samples from STR

Write an abstract of the project and indicate

the type and the number of tissue samples needed.

Obtain funding for the research. If you require help, STR can provide a

letter of support for your grant application.

For frozen tissue, collaboration with

contributing clinicians is required. For fresh

tissue, pathologist and clinician collaboration is required. Contact us

for a full list.

List down the collaborating

pathologists and contributing clinicians in the CIRB application and CIRB approval for

the project. At the same time, apply to the

STR Committee for tissue access.

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ENQUIRYEmail us at

[email protected] or [email protected] to

check the availability of the tissue material you require.

APPLICATIONSubmit a copy of Request to Use of

Material form together with a copy of approval letter by Centralised

Institutional Review Board (CIRB).

REVIEW by the STR COMMITTEEThis normally takes about

14 working days.

APPLICATION PROCESS

Application processfor request of tissue samples

Application processfor scheduled collections

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APPROVAL &START OF PROJECT

We will arrange a date for you to collect the

tissue material from us and invoice you for

the withdrawal.

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ENQUIRYSend your project abstract together with

the type and number of biospecimens requested to

[email protected] or [email protected]

after which we will arrange a meeting to discuss your project further.

APPLICATIONSubmit a copy of Application to Use the

Services of the SingHealth Tissue Repository form together with a copy of

the approval letter by Centralised Institutional Review Board (CIRB).

REVIEW by the STR COMMITTEEThis normally takes about

14 working days.

APPROVAL &START OF PROJECT

We will go ahead with the sample collection

as speci�ed in the protocol and invoice you for the storage

and processing.

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REJECTIONYou may re-apply with a revised

proposal that addresses the reviewers’ concerns. These usually

relate to insu�cient justi�cation for number of samples requested; or

lack of justi�cation for the types of samples requested.

The content is correct at the time of printing.©2015 SingHealth O�ce of Research. All rights reserved.

SingHealth Tissue Repository (STR)

20 College Road,The Academia, Discovery Tower, Level 10Singapore 169856

Tel: (+65) 6576 7115 / 7116Email: [email protected]

DIRECTOR’S BIO

Assoc. Prof Tan Soo Yong is Director of SingHealth Tissue Repository (STR) and also heads Advanced Molecular Pathology Laboratory (AMPL). He is also Senior Principal Investigator at the Institute of Cell and Molecular Biology (IMCB), Chief Examiner in Pathology, Chairman of the Residency Advisory Committee for Pathology and Visiting Professor to University Malaya.

He is currently Associate Professor in Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore, a Senior Consultant and Clinician Investigator in the Department of Pathology, Singapore General Hospital and Senior Consultant to the Ministry of Health, Singapore. A member of the International Lymphoma Study Group (ILSG), his current research interest is in the pathology of NK/T cell and epitheliotropic intestinal T-cell lymphoma.