How To Obtain Samples

• Questions regarding tissue holdings or application process may be directed to Dr. Crawford. 
• Obtain Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval.
  • Contact the IRB office for help in determining approval category (non-human subject, exempt, expedited, full-board). See IRB decision tree.
  • Submit a Specimen Confidentiality Agreement to Dr. Crawford, M649, for his signature if submitting an exempt or non-human subjects protocol. You do not need a copy of the informed consent form used by the MTB.
  • Submit the signed Specimen Confidentiality Agreement along with your other IRB forms to the IRB office.
     
• Fill out the MTB Application then email to Dr. Crawford. Send signed signature page to Dr. Crawford, MTB, Box 100275. You can submit the sample MTB application while your IRB approval is pending. Please list all grants and publications that will utilize samples supplied by this facility as this information will be used in preparing progress reports for continuation of this shared facility.
   
• Send a copy of your IRB approval letter to Dr. Crawford, MTB, Box 100275. IRB approval must be received before samples are released.
   
• Select your samples from a listing provided by the lab staff. Samples will be readied for pick up in M621 or delivered to your lab.

Investigators who utilize these samples must accept the following responsibilities:

1. IRB approval. This tissue bank has current IRB approval for collecting human tissues. All investigators must first obtain their own IRB approval for each specific research project before receiving samples. The requirements for a project-specific IRB approval cannot be satisfied using the IRB approval held by the tissue bank.

2. The diagnostic process will not be compromised. No tissue can be taken if it compromises the patient's care and the Pathology Department must be fully informed of any tissue taken for research.

3. Patient confidentiality must be preserved. Investigators studying clinical samples must, first and foremost, consider the need to protect the patient's privacy. All tissue will receive a MTB code number and no PHI will be supplied without IRB approval. Baseline data (gender, age, race) and a de-identified final pathology report may be obtained.

4. All investigators will receive Human Subjects Protection Training as required by UF IRB and NIH. The Principal Investigator is responsible for ensuring that all investigators and lab staff are knowledgeable and informed about these rules.

5. All laboratories and investigators using human tissue for research must observe universal handling precautions for potentially infectious biological materials and obtain biosafety approval from EH&S at UF.

Acknowledgment

We request that investigators acknowledge the contribution made by this facility in all publications resulting from the use of these samples. Recommended wording is as follows: "Tissue samples for this project were provided by the University of Florida Molecular Tissue Bank".