History of the Cooperative Human Tissue Network

The CHTN was formed in 1987 by three organizations along with a subcontract with the Children's Cancer Group (CCG). In 1991 the Pediatric Division became an independent group and an additional adult collection center was added to the CHTN. All six organizations that currently comprise the CHTN have extensive experience in providing human tissues for research.

The Ohio State University (OSU) has had an internal tissue procurement service sponsored by their Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1975 and it joined the CHTN in 1987. Daniel Sedmak, M.D., is the principal investigator for this Midwestern Division of the CHTN.

The Pediatric Division, located at Children's Hospital of Columbus under the direction of Stephen J. Qualman, M.D., obtains most of its specimens through Children's Oncology Group institutions. Sixty percent of all pediatric cancer patients in the United States are treated at C.O.G. institutions.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham's (UAB) Tissue Procurement Facility has supplied fresh and snap-frozen human tissues to investigators within and outside their Comprehensive Cancer Center since 1978. UAB joined the CHTN in 1987. William E. Grizzle, M.D., Ph.D., the principal investigator for this Southern Division of the CHTN, is a board-certified clinical and anatomic pathologist as well as a funded medical researcher.

The University of Pennsylvania (UPENN) serves as the Eastern Division of the CHTN under the direction of Principal Investigator, Dr. Virginia LiVolsi, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, who has served as the Eastern Division P.I. since the inception of the CHTN. During that time, the Eastern Division has expanded its tissue procurement network to include numerous hospitals in the Eastern region.

The University of Virginia has had a tissue procurement service since 1993. It served the NCI as a major tissue supplier for the Cancer Genome Anatomy Project. Dr. Christopher Moskaluk, Assistant Professor of Pathology, serves as the Principal Investigator of the Mid-Atlantic Division.

Vanderbilt University's Tissue Procurement Facility operated as a subcontract tissue procurement site for the CHTN for six years before becoming the Western Division of the CHTN in 2001. Dr. Mary Kay Washington, Professor of Pathology, is currently the Principal Investigator of the Western Division.

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