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Michigan Endocrine Tissue Bank (METB)

Specific Aims and Objectives

1. To establish an endocrine tissue bank consisting of frozen tissues procured by the Tissue Procurement Service and paraffin-embedded tissues.
   
2. To establish a pathology database for all of the banked tissues.
   
3. To prepare tissue microarray blocks of the major endocrine tissues.

Background and Significance

The University of Michigan has a strong tradition in the treatment of endocrine disease, including rare diseases such as adrenal cortical carcinoma. Accordingly, the Department of Pathology enjoys a rich supply of diverse endocrine-related cases for diagnosis. Thus, the conditions are ideal for the creation of an endocrine tissue bank. Towards that end, Thomas Giordano, M.D., Ph.D., as the institutional endocrine pathologist, has banked whatever endocrine tissues were available via the Tissue Procurement Service. However, resources needed to fully catalog the cases and create the corresponding pathology database have not been available.

The availability of a fully catalogued endocrine bank and pathology database would be a tremendous asset to the University of Michigan Endocrine Oncology Program. The bank, designated the Michigan Endocrine Tissue Bank (METB), would provide crucial infrastructure for current research projects and for future research avenues of the Endocrine Oncology Program. Furthermore, the establishment of the METB might help in this recruitment.

 

Read about the Michigan Endocrine Database (MED)