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BioRep - Procedures

SOPs for Specimen Accrual

The UNSW Biorepository has Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place to ensure that specimens are handled and processed in a consistent manner within each Collection Protocol, while maintaining a high standard of specimen provenance:

• Tissue handling & storage SOP • RNA extraction from tissue SOP

• DNA extraction from tissue SOP • DNA extraction from blood SOP

Acknowledgement Policy

Pearl (Ping) Zhu

Position: Technical Officer
Facility: Biorepository
Category: General/Technical Staff

Full profile

Dr Anusha Hettiaratchi

Position: Manager, UNSW Biorepository
Facility: Biorepository
Category: General/Technical Staff

Full profile

BioRep - Staff

Specimen storage options

We offer a variety of temperature ranges at one facility to accommodate the exact temperature requirements of your biospecimens:

• Ambient (18°C to 25°C)

• Ultra-Low / Ultra-Cold (–80°C to –95°C)

• Vapour Phase Liquid Nitrogen (–135°C to –196°C)

• Dry-nitrogen shippers to transport frozen samples

Other services

Mission Statement

The UNSW Biorepository aims to support cancer research by providing access to relevant, high quality and well-annotated biospecimens.

Key Objectives

1. Store patient specimens in good order, and with accurate records of provenance.

2. Ensure systems are in place for the accurate storage and retrieval of biospecimens.

BioRep - FAQs

How do I submit a Specimen Request to the UNSW Biorepository?

Researchers submit a Specimen Application Form to the Biorepository Manager to obtain samples. This form requires an explanation of the tissue requested (type, number of samples, justification), description of the study and HREC approval. Requests for tissue array slides are also received by the Biorepository Manager.

Dr Richard Webster

Position: Research Associate
Facility: Electron Microscope Unit
Category: Academic Staff

Education

PhD Physics, University of Bristol, UK (2015)

MSci Physics, University of Bristol, UK (2011)

Role

To operate the newly purchased JEOL F200 microscope, design and implement research experiments in collaboration with researchers across the University in the area of advanced transmission electron microscopy, including high-resolution imaging, electron diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis, and other imaging and analysis modes where applicable.

Research Interests

My interests lie in the application of electron microscopy methods to determine composition, structure and defect nature of semiconductors, mainly III-nitrides. My present research includes the application of electron microscopy to InxGa1-xN nanorods and ﬁlms for use in LED and transistor devices.

Publications

Full profile

Thermo Scientific HistoStar

Shandon Exceisior ES Tissue Processor

Shandon Excelsior ES Tissue Processor is used for automated fixation, dehydration, clearing and wax infiltration of specimens prior to paraffin embedding and sectioning. Subsequent processing like staining and immunostaining can then be performed on processed specimen for pathology diagnosis or research. You can process up to 222 samples at once, across 3 level of organised baskets. The samples are hold into specimen cassettes and each level of organised basket can contain up to 74 cassettes.

Chemicon Advanced Tissue Arrayer

Chemicon Advanced Tissue Arrayer ATA100 allows you to create customized arrays of multiple tissue specimens on a single histologic slide. This instrument allows to selectively remove core tissue samples from paraffin blocks and arrange those tissue samples into an array within a recipient paraffin block. The newly formed tissue array paraffin block is then ready for further histology technique processing.

Thermo Scientific CryoStar NX70

Thermo Scientific CryoStar NX70 is a high-performance cryostat designed to prepare tissue

sections of frozen samples in medical and research laboratories. Specimen temperature control range is from -50^oC to +10^oC and blade temperature control range is from -35^oC to -5^oC. Section thickness can be ranged from 0.5 µm to 500 µm. Fresh or fixed frozen specimens, embedded in OCT, are suitable for cryostat sectioning. Frozen sections could be used for varying staining, such as histology stains, Immunohistochemistry (IFC) and Immunofluorescence (IF) stains.

Leica RM2135 Rotary Microtome

Leica RM2135 rotary microtome is used to cut very thin cross-sections of specimens (usually 4 µm) for routine and research histology studies in the fields of biology and medicine. This instrument is designed for cutting soft and harder paraffin embedded specimens, as long as they are suitable for being cut manually. The sectioning thickness setting range can be from 1 µm to 60 µm. High quality paraffin sections could be used for varying staining, such as Haematoxylin and Eosin stain (H&E), immunohistochemistry (IHC), Immunofluorescent staining (IF) and In situ hybridization (ISH).

EasyGel And SmartClear II

EasyGel is a system designed for speeding the process of producing tissue-gel-hybridization samples. The SmartClear II system is a commercial instrument that allow fast, easy and reliable tissue clearing of tissue-gel-hybridization samples. The system uses stochastic electrotransport technology to remove lipids from tissue-gel-hybridization samples, thereby producing optically transparent samples. Samples that have been optically cleared with the SmartClear II system can be imaged by a number of light microscopy techniques such as confocal and lightsheet.

Leica SP8 DLS

The Leica TCS SP8 DLS (Digital LightSheet) is an inverted laser scanning microscope capable to be used for confocal imaging and light sheet imaging. This microscope is able to image multi-colour, live, fixed or aqueous-based cleared specimens utilising a combinations of 405, 458, 488, 514, 561 and 635 nm excitation lasers through the employment of the AOBS with spectral high quantum efficiency detectors. The advantage of the two combined features (confocal/Lightsheet) on a single equipment allow to perform, with the confocal module, local photo activation or photo bleaching where the resulting dynamics can be capture via lightsheet imaging on thick sample (up to 2 mm thick and 1 cm long).

Aperio XT Slide Scanner

The Aperio ScanScope XT scanner is a brightfield microscope that is used to digitalise

Aperio FL Slide Scanner

The Aperio ScanScope FL scanner is a fluorescence microscope that is used to digitalise traditional fluorescently labelled specimens, mounted on a glass slide, through a high-quality scanning process and produces, able to scan large areas. With 20X magnification you can select from up to 4 fluorescent colors (Blue, Green, red, far-red). All slides must be labelled with DAPI or Hoechst nuclear stain for calibration and focusing purposes.

Leica TCS SP5 WLL STED

This Leica TCS SP5 confocal system is equipped for a broad range of experimental requirements. Along with a range of fixed wavelength laser lines it now has a White-Light Laser (WLL) tunable within the range x-x for precise control over fluorophore excitation. Fitted with Hybrid Dectors (HyD) for enhanced sensitivity, and interchangeable Galvano and resonant scanners, this system is suitable for applications requiring both speed and/or improved signal-to-noise. Its Gated-STED module also enables colleciton of super-resolution images allowing investigators to distinguish objects and structures beyond the conventional resolution limit of light.

TILL Photonics iMic TIRF System

This microscope has a unique design, allowing for a great deal of customization of the sample space and experimental design. The system is designed for up to four-color total internal fluorescence (TIRF), photoactivation (PA), fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET), widefield correlation spectroscopy (WCS), spatio-temporal image correlation spectroscopy (STICS), and fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP) experiments, all at high frame rates. Single-molecule measurements can be enhanced with a pair of single-photon avalanche photodiodes (APDs) and a pulse correlator for fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS) and fluorescence cross-correlation spectroscopy (FCCS) experiments. An environmental chamber allows for these techniques to be extended to live cell samples.

Picoquant Microtime200

The Microtime200, manufactured by the German-based PicoQuant GmbH, is generally used in conjunction with the TCS SP5 microscope. By using the lasers from the TCS SP5, the Microtime200 is capable of measuring how fast proteins move within the cell (diffusion) and protein to protein interactions.

Emergencies

Emergencies: Call (02) 9385 6666

Partners

Partners

Funding for Stats Central comes from the Research Division, with support from the School of Mathmatics and Statistics, and a growing suite of partner schools. Any UNSW school or unit can partner with Stats Central by paying for a portion of a consultant’s time (from 20% FTE upwards), in exchange for a consultant being assigned to the school/unit to specialise in that particular field and be physically based in the Partner School

Authorship Guidelines

MWAC adheres to authorship guidelines as set out in the NHMRC Australian Code for the Responsible Conduct of Research as well as the UNSW Research Code of Conduct. Contributions from MWAC staff should be appropriately acknowledged.