PathXL: Defining Guidelines in Tissue Microarray Research
Tissue microarrays (TMAs) are extremely important in today’s research laboratory and as biobank resource for researchers.
PathXL has contributed to the current issue of the Histopathology Journal which leads with an article titled ‘Guidelines and considerations for conducting experiments using tissue microarrays’ which features input from Prof. Peter Hamilton. The paper defines the standards for TMA research and biomarker discovery and emphasises the importance of digital pathology and informatics in TMA-based research.
PathXL have developed innovative web-based digital pathology solutions to support TMAs – facilitating the scoring of biomarker data and managing complex TMA experiments.
Abstract: Tissue microarrays (TMAs) represent a powerful method for undertaking large-scale tissue-based biomarker studies. While TMAs offer several advantages, there are a number of issues specific to their use which need to be considered when employing this method. Given the investment in TMA-based research, guidance on design and execution of experiments will be of benefit and should help researchers new to TMA-based studies to avoid known pitfalls. Furthermore, a consensus on quality standards for TMA-based experiments should improve the robustness and reproducibility of studies, thereby increasing the likelihood of identifying clinically useful biomarkers. In order to address these issues, the National Cancer Research Institute Biomarker and Imaging Clinical Studies Group organized a 1-day TMA workshop held in Nottingham in May 2012. The document herein summarizes the conclusions from the workshop. It includes guidance and considerations on all aspects of TMA-based research, including the pre-analytical stages of experimental design, the analytical stages of data acquisition, and the postanalytical stages of data analysis. A checklist is presented which can be used both for planning a TMA experiment and interpreting the results of such an experiment. For studies of cancer biomarkers, this checklist could be used as a supplement to the REMARK guidelines.
View the full article in the May issue of Histopathology Journal online for members.
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Related: PathXL TMA Products
Source: PathXL
