Home UVA receives $3 million NCI grant to expand tissue sample collection
Local News

UVA receives $3 million NCI grant to expand tissue sample collection

Contributors

uva-health-sysThe UVA Health System has been awarded more than $3 million from the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute to support and expand a critically important program that makes tissue samples available for research on diseases ranging from breast cancer to lung disease. The five-year grant enables UVA to launch a partnership with Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) and the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) to collect samples there as well.

“One of the bottlenecks in translational research is getting diseased human biosamples to study,” said grant recipient Christopher Moskaluk, MD, PhD, chairman of the UVA Department of Pathology and a leader of the NCI-designated UVA Cancer Center. “There is a critical need for specimens, and we realized if we could get partners we could increase the number of samples we could provide.”

EVMS and MUSC will be asked to collect samples that are in particularly great demand, such as from breast and brain cancers. “These are samples we really find hard to fulfill the need for,” Moskaluk said.

The samples are collected, with patient permission, from extra tissues leftover from diagnosis. This rescues useful tissue that would otherwise be discarded. “After diagnosis, the rest of the tissue is destroyed. It’s incinerated,” Moskaluk said. “It’s a horrible waste.”

The Cooperative Human Tissue Network, a network of academic medical centers organized by the National Cancer Institute, aims to put that tissue to good use by sharing it with biomedical researchers. The new grant funding continues UVA’s longstanding relationship with the network, which also includes Ohio State University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Pennsylvania, Nationwide Children’s Hospital and Vanderbilt University. Over its 27-year history, the CHTN has distributed close to 1 million specimens, resulting in more than 2,500 scientific publications.

UVA was chosen to join the network in 2001 partly based on UVA’s expertise in creating tissue microarrays, Moskaluk said. Unlike typical microscope slides that contain only one tissue sample, a microarray can contain hundreds of samples, making for easy, efficient comparison. “It really speeds up the scientific process,” Moskaluk said.

Only select institutions have the resources and expertise to create microarrays, which are in great demand by researchers. The new grant, Moskaluk said, will allow UVA to increase production to help meet that demand. In addition, it will allow the UVA researchers to expand production to include prostate cancer and other tissue types not currently available.

The NIH grant, spanning five years, is No. 1 UM1 CA183712-01.

FOR REPORTERS: Moskaluk will be available for interviews this morning. To arrange an interview, contact Josh Barney at 434.906.8864 or [email protected]. Photographs are available of both Moskaluk and a tissue microarray created at UVA.

Contributors

Contributors

Have a guest column, letter to the editor, story idea or a news tip? Email editor Chris Graham at [email protected]. Subscribe to AFP podcasts on Apple PodcastsSpotifyPandora and YouTube.

Latest News

robert f. kennedy jr.
Virginia News

Doctor: Higher infection rates of flu, COVID, RSV, norovirus in areas with lower vaccination rates

Sgt. Bill Mikolay Augusta County Sheriff's Office
Local News

Augusta County sheriff’s deputy resolves assault charge with Alford plea

An Augusta County sheriff’s deputy entered an Alford plea to a misdemeanor assault and battery charge on Thursday, resolving his legal exposure from a 2023 arrest of a Gordonsville man that ended up putting the arrested subject in the hospital. Sgt. William Mikolay, who has been on paid administrative leave for the past 14 months,...

staunton
Local News, Politics

Staunton encourages residents to participate in 2026 budget process

The Fiscal Year 2026 budget process is underway for Staunton City Council and city residents are encouraged to participate.

health care
Local News

Harrisonburg: Velocity rebranded as Sentara Urgent Care

closed business sign hospital
Virginia News

Funding freeze forcing Virginia health centers to close doors, cancel appointments

donald trump maga
Politics, U.S. & World News

Alon Ben-Meir: Forcing the Palestinians out of Gaza is a recipe for disaster

tony elliott
Football, Sports

UVA Football: Tony Elliott acknowledges ‘impact’ of investments in NIL