Molecular Cytogenetics and Genomics Laboratory
Equine Tissue Sharing Program
Welcome to the Equine Tissue Sharing Program's website! We are
an equine tissue bank committed to providing researchers with the
highest quality samples available in order to promote and
facilitate the discovery of new treatments for equine diseases.
Please note that we do not euthanize horses - in fact, one of our
goals is to reduce the need to use live animals for research!
Mission Statement
The mission of the Equine Tissue Sharing Program (ETSP) is to
provide equine researchers from non-profit and academic
institutions access to equine tissues and reagents in order to
expand the number of investigators who are able to carry out equine
research and increase the quality of research currently being
performed. We plan to accomplish these goals in three progressive
steps:
- Establish an intramural tissue bank and communications
infrastructure to facilitate sharing of equine tissues among
investigators within Texas A&M University. During this initial
phase, we will also develop standard operating protocols (SOPs) for
tissue collection, storage, and distribution, record keeping, and
quality assurance checks. Start-up funding will be requested from
various private agencies, including the Waltham Foundation and the
Morris Animal Foundation, to purchase equipment and supplies.
- Expand the tissue bank to include researchers at other
universities. In order to be useful, we must collect a wide variety
of tissues from normal and diseased horses and communicate the
scope, volume, and quality of our inventory to the scientific
public. This will be accomplished through the creation and
maintenance of a website, as well as through publication of data
resulting from our periodic quality assurance checks. A business
plan will be created to ensure the self-sufficiency of the Program
and to ensure its continued operation with no further outside
funding.
- Expand the Program to include clinical samples from horses seen
at the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital and
develop new equine-specific reagents. Specifically, we will develop
protocols to isolate, culture, and passage primary equine cells
from a variety of tissues. In addition, we will collaborate with
other investigators to create an internet-based collection of assay
protocols and antibodies validated for use in horses. At this time,
we will apply for funding from the National Institutes of Health to
become an Animal and Biological Material Resource Center. In the
final phase of this project, we envision the ETSP and the College
of Veterinary Medicine as a national clearinghouse for tissues,
reagents, and protocols for equine research.
Forms
Please check back later for sample request forms
Sample Availability
We currently have samples available from the 9 different tissues
listed below. These particular tissues do not exhibit gross
pathology and should be suitable for use as controls in a wide
variety of experiments. In the future, we hope to carry
samples from additional tissue types as well as diseased
tissue. If you don't see what you need here, please fill out
our Survey and let us know which sample types would be most useful
to you. Although the majority of our current inventory is
stored as frozen tissue, future samples will also be available in
formalin-fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) and OCT-embedded formats
suitable for histology and immunohistochemistry.
Current Inventory
- Brain (frontal lobe, cerebellum, and brain stem)
- Cerebrospinal fluid
- Heart (left ventricle, apex)
- Kidney
- Liver
- Lung
- Skeletal muscle (multiple)
- Spleen
- Tendon
Quality Control
A cornerstone of the ETSP is the development of protocols and
documentation to ensure that all of our samples are of the highest
quality. We are currently working to comply with the
recommendations of the American Association of Tissue Banks and the
National Cancer Institute's Best Practices for Biospeciman
Resources. Please check back soon for detailed information
regarding our specific quality control procedures.
Personnel
The ETSP is currently curated by Dr. Samantha Steelman of the
Veterinary Integrative Biosciences department at the Texas A&M
University College of Veterinary Medicine. Other staff include Dr.
Jan Janecka (VIBS) as Faculty Representative and our student
workers, Yvette Halley and Emilee Larkin. Start up funds for the
ETSP were generously provided by Dr. Bhanu Chowdhary, Professor and
Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies.
In the future, Dr. Steelman will serve as Director of the
program with the help of an advisory board made up of Research,
Clinical, and Pathology faculty representatives. Additional
representatives from TAMU and outside institutions will be added as
the need arises.
Contact:
Samantha Steelman, PhD
Veterinary Integrative Biosciences
VMA Bldg, Room 107
TAMU 4458
College Station, TX 77843-4458
Phone: (979) 862-1436
For more information, please e-mail us at etsp@cvm.tamu.edu