Instrumentation
The Institutional Tissue Bank (ITB) at MD Anderson provides and maintains the following pieces of equipment.
Workstations
Six workstations are spread among two facilities (Alkek and Mays buildings) and include a computer, monitor and desk. Stainless steel countertop is available for specimen processing.
Biological Safety Cabinets
Four biological safety cabinets for blood and other fluid processing, as well as for maintaining sterility of tissue samples and solutions.
Freezers and Refrigerators
Two -80°C freezers and a refrigerator (capacity is 600 2-inch boxes) are available for daily access in the laboratory at the Alkek building. Fifteen -80°C low temperature units (capacity is 600-700 2-inch boxes), one -20°C and four vapor-phase ultra-low freezers are available for sample storage in Basic Sciences Research Building (BSRB). AeroScout™ Temperature Monitoring System provides real-time information regarding refrigerators and freezers temperature status. Institutional Tissue Bank has frozen samples stored with CryoGene, which is an off-campus sample repository.
Centrifuges
Five centrifuges are available for blood and other fluid processing. These are located in the laboratory in the Alkek building.
LUNA™ Automated Cell Counter
ITB uses body fluid processing equipment to assess cell viability prior to preservation. The LUNA™ automated cell counter is used by ITB daily to capture count of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) isolated from whole blood and bone marrow aspirate (BMA). The instrument analyzes the image to produce total, live and dead cell counts quickly and precisely.
Aperio AT2 Slide Scanner
The Aperio™ scanner offers rapid, high-quality whole-slide imaging, with scanner options to suit specific research needs. ITB scans histological slides and uploads images onto a network for remote access among collaborators. The images are used for quality control purposes by ITB pathologists, with the possibility of marking the slide with the corresponding tumor annotation.
Printers and Barcode Scanners
Four Brady BBP 81 Thermal Transfer printers for the production of customized, bar-coded specimen labels are available in both the Alkek and Mays buildings. In conjunction with the Brady BBP 81 Thermal Transfer barcode printer, the ITB and its satellites use two Brady™ Code Reader™ CR1400 for fast, user-friendly data and inventory management.
Histological Cassette Printer
PrintMate AS Histological Cassette Printers are printing cassettes on-demand at the grossing station. It facilitates the workflow on large-scale labeling work. It ensures proper and fast sample labeling with high quality, stable and direct samples marking.
Automated Blood Processing Line
Equipment is utilized for processing of patients’ blood for research projects. Instruments aliquot serum and plasma, as well as isolate mononuclear cells and other blood cells in semiautomated mode. Automated Blood Processing Line allows samples with improved quality and processing time.
Our Equipment
