Cores

The Mayo Clinic Ovarian Cancer SPORE is supported by four cores.

Administrative Core

The Administrative Core provides organizational and communications support for SPORE leadership, research projects and scientific cores and for the Developmental Research Program and the Career Enhancement Program.

Within the SPORE, the Administrative Core:

Provides leadership and organizational support to investigators.
Oversees formal procedures for scientific review of research projects.
Oversees and facilitates the efforts of all the cores.
Manages and coordinates fiscal activities.
Monitors accrual to clinical trials, population research studies and biospecimen collections.
Provides guidance and administrative support to leaders in the Developmental Research Program and Career Enhancement Program.
Facilitates activities of the Executive Committee and implements its decisions.
Promotes engagement of the SPORE's patient advocates.
Assists with reviews of the SPORE by the External Advisory Board and Internal Scientific Advisory Committee.
Ensures ongoing integration of the Ovarian Cancer SPORE with the Advanced Clinical Trials and Translational Sciences Program.
Serves as the administrative liaison between the Ovarian Cancer SPORE and other Mayo Clinic SPOREs, the NCI SPORE program, and external collaborators.

Core directors

Scott H. Kaufmann, M.D. Ph.D.
Jamie N. Bakkum-Gamez, M.D.

Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core

The Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core provides SPORE investigators with high-quality patient data, DNA, RNA, blood products, and tissues from people with ovarian cancer, fallopian tube cancer and primary peritoneal carcinoma. These samples also are available for use in future studies.

Mayo Clinic has a strong tradition of ethically sound support of research that links tissue acquisition and patient data records. Paraffin-embedded tissues, histological slides and associated patient charts from surgeries performed since the first decade of the 1900s are maintained in the Tissue Registry and archives at Mayo Clinic.

The core is integrated with other Mayo Clinic core shared resources. The Pathology Research Core is a resource of expertise, collaborative support and service for immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, tissue microarray construction and digital imaging. The Biospecimens Accessioning and Processing Core is the main site of accessioning and standardized processing of research samples of blood and frozen tissue.

Integration with other shared resources and scientific cores within the SPORE provides a coordinated, centralized and dedicated pathway for standardized collection, accessioning, processing, morphological classification and evaluation of biospecimens and data from people with ovarian cancer.

Thorough clinical and molecular genetic annotation is required to maximize the potential use of tissue specimens in translational research. Therefore, risk factor questionnaires, clinical records, pathology review and panel testing of ovarian cancer susceptibility genes are incorporated into the core.

The core also coordinates activities with the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core to provide seamless linking of clinical annotation with research specimens for data management and analyses.

Research services provided to SPORE investigators include:

Pathologic review of tumor histology.
Tumor sectioning and quality control.
Blood processing.
Construction of tissue microarrays (TMAs), immunohistochemistry (IHC) and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Core directors

Yajue Huang, M.D., Ph.D.
Maryam Shahi, M.D.
Gary L. Keeney, M.D.
Ellen L. Goode, Ph.D.

Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core

The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core provides statistical collaboration and data management support for the SPORE's research projects, Developmental Research Program, Career Enhancement Program and other SPORE cores.

The Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core provides SPORE investigators with:

Access to statistical expertise that includes collaborative development of study designs and analysis plans.
State-of-the-art data analysis and interpretation.
Data management resources.
Abstract and manuscript preparation.

The core continuously improves existing database infrastructure to support the activities of SPORE investigators. The core complements and assists the efforts of the Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core and the Animal Models Core by providing superior data management and experience with biospecimen registries.

Through these collaborative activities, the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core helps ensure that research in the Ovarian Cancer SPORE is carried out in an efficient, effective and rigorous manner.

Core leaders

Director: Ann L. Oberg, Ph.D.
Co-investigator: Hu Li, Ph.D.
Co-investigator: Chen Wang, Ph.D.

Animal Models Core

The Animal Models Core works to improve understanding of ovarian cancer and to enhance the development of novel therapies.

To support these goals, the core provides clinically relevant models that are highly translatable, helping investigators take treatments from the bench to the bedside as safely as possible.

The core also uses models developed from Mayo Clinic's patient-derived xenograft (PDX) living tumor bank to develop novel therapies.

Consisting of more than 660 discrete models, these orthotopic patient-derived xenografts recapitulate the histological, molecular and drug response characteristics of the source tumors as orthotopic models in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice. In addition, these models spread throughout the peritoneal cavity, including omentum, just like the human counterpart.

In collaboration with the Biospecimens and Patient Registry Core and the Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Core, the Animal Models Core selects appropriate models and expands them for use in experiments to evaluate treatment. These models are based on source tumor, such as clinical parameters or germline genotypes, or on PDX characteristics, such as drug sensitivity, mutation or gene expression profile.