Policies

Human Tissue Policy

Effective 1-1-15

The Department of Developmental Biology’s Histology Core will accept human tissue only in one of two ways:

  1. In cassettes for processing and paraffin embedding

    OR
  2. Fixed frozen in OCT for frozen sections

The Principal Investigator is responsible to assure that the human tissue sample is properly fixed and properly approved for research use.

Radioactive Sample Policy

Effective 7-10-06

The Department of Developmental Biology’s Histology Facility CANNOT ACCEPT: 

  • Radioactive samples

Turnaround Times

You can expect the following turnaround times:

  • Small orders of 10 blocks or less – Four (4) days
  • Large orders of greater than 10 items -Two (2) weeks
  • Large orders of greater than 50 items: The investigator will be asked to self-prioritize the samples and split/batch the samples into groups of 50 or less.
    • Large sample orders tend to increase turnaround time to other investigators submitting smaller orders. The Histology Core welcomes large sample orders and we do not want to put in place a procedure that discourages the receipt of these larger orders.  To be fair to all investigators, we will ask the investigator to self-prioritize the order into batches.
    • Orders with a size greater than 50 items will be split/batched into groups of 50 or less. For example, if an order arrives with 150 items, the order will be split/batched into three orders.  The first batch will be given a receipt date of the day received and will be placed in the current que.  The second batch will also have the date received recorded, but the date to begin processing of the samples will be one week later.  The third batch will have the date received recorded, but the date to begin processing the samples will be two weeks later, etc.   If a batch of 80 samples is received, the first batch will be 50 items and the second batch will be 30 items.
    • The investigator will be asked to self-prioritize the samples into the most important, which will be completed first, and those that can wait a few weeks.
    • If an investigator wants to move the second or third batch up in the que, an additional 30% priority processing fee will be applied.