Facility Details

The Pathology Laboratory for Translational Medicine (PLTM) has been in existence since 2002 and serves the anatomic pathology (histology) needs of basic, clinical and translational researchers at WVU and other outside institutions. The PLTM mission is to provide both local and national researchers with access to high quality tissue processing and histology techniques. By providing these services, the PLTM helps fulfill WVU Health Sciences Center’s mission to strengthen basic and clinical scientific research by providing education and access to pathology services. The PLTM operates under Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) and CLIA 88 regulations. The laboratory currently provides assistance with tissue handling, fixation, processing, staining and/or interpretation on a fee for service basis.

Dr. James Coad, a board certified anatomic pathologist with over 15 years of experience in human and animal translational medical research, directs the laboratory. The PLTM is staffed by an administrator, three ASCP registered histotechnicians and one laboratory assistant. These employees are also cross-trained with the WVU tissue bank to optimize work flow coverage.

The most requested PLTM services are professional guidance (dissection, processing and interpretation), tissues processing (frozen and paraffin-embedding), tissue staining (routine and advanced immunostaining), frozen sectioning and unstained paraffin sectioning. Other custom services are available upon request, such as paraffin ribbon cutting for DNA/RNA/protein work or sections for laser capture microdissection.

At a time when new methodologies are continuously emerging, the PLTM seeks to provide guidance and access to these techniques for basic and clinical biomedical researchers. Future technologies for the PLTM would include expansion of hybridization techniques for the confirmation and localization of protein expression, viruses, genetic translocations/changes (in situ hybridization: chromogenic or FISH) and genetic complement changes (comparative genomic hybridization). Automated immunohistochemical procedure expansion will be sought to provide more uniform and reproducible staining to complement quantitative image analysis advances.

The PLTM strives to participate in multidisciplinary investigations by providing access to state-of-the-art pathology techniques, tissue handling and expert interpretive consultation. It seeks to provide pathology services that will optimize utilization of other WVU core laboratories, such as the imaging core (fostering well prepared and stained tissues) and specimens for molecular core testing (frozen or paraffin ribbons). These services are available to investigators using animal models and human tissues alike.