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Tissue Bio-Banking

A tissue biobanking service is provided under the direction of Prof Elaine Kay and Dr. Tony O’Grady. This biobank comprises fresh frozen and formalin-fixed tumour and normal breast, colon, prostate and skin tissue samples. An important aim of the tissue biobank is to ensure the availability of high quality, well annotated tissue specimens for research. It underpins ongoing and future translational research projects.

The cancer biobank is managed by clinical research nurse, Joan Kehoe. Her role currently encompasses screening patients for involvement in our studies in the Gastro Intestinal clinic and following them through to surgery. Clinico-pathological data including tumour grade, stage, and vascular invasion status along with disease specific survival data has been collected prospectively is also maintained by the Clinical Research Nurse.

A recent project carried out by the   “Centres for Research Training – Genomics Data Science” CRT-GDS and work was done by
Batuhan Kisakol, PhD ( Completed October 2024).
Project Title
 “Utilising a multi-omics approach to profile tumour heterogeneity in colorectal cancer: Integrating bulk, spatial, single-cell transcriptome, and multiplexed imaging datasets to investigate characteristics of molecular subtypes with treatment responses in colorectal cancer. “
A description of the type of tissue used in the project?
Colorectal cancer TMAs, full-face section.
How the biobank tissue, is being used; links/webpages linked to the project
Use of the tissues (included two recent in-house works, one already published):
Colorectal cancer tissues were analysed with spatial omics platforms to understand tumour heterogeneity and treatment response.
  • Investigating hypoxia-driven spatial patterns in CMS2 tumours. It aims to utilize the GeoMX DSP platform to identify hypoxia-related gene expression patterns in CMS2 tumours, hypothesising that hypoxia may contribute to metabolic reprogramming and distinct cellular differentiation states within these tumours.
  • “Spatial transcriptomic analysis reveals local effects of intratumoral fusobacterial infection on DNA damage and immune signaling in rectal cancer” link to Bill’s fuso study published: https://doi.org/10.1080/19490976.2024.2350149

Below is information on Dr Barry McGuire MD student 

Project Title

”Immunogenicity in mucinous rectal adenocarcinoma”

A description of the type of tissue used in the project?

My project uses both mucinous and non-mucinous colorectal FFPE tissue from the RCSI Biobank

How the biobank tissue, is being used; links/webpages linked to the project: Fusobacteria have been associated with altered prognosis in colorectal cancer and this is hypothesised to relate in part to alterations in the immune microenvironment. My project aims to characterise the local effects of Fusobacteria on mucinous colorectal cancer. To study this, we have retrieved and cut colorectal cancer tumour specimens which have been mounted onto slides. Using multiplexed immunohistochemistry and confocal imaging to label Fusobacteria as well as proteins of interest, we study the immune environment associated with Fusobacteria.

Our group has already published a study based on a spatial transcriptomic approach: Duggan WP, Kisakol B, Woods I, Azimi M, Dussmann H, Fay J, et al. Spatial transcriptomic analysis reveals local effects of intratumoral fusobacterial infection on DNA damage and immune signaling in rectal cancer. Gut Microbes. 2024;16(1):2350149