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• Meet Sak

Sak is a researcher in the Orchid Tissue Bank team 

Message from the OrchidTissue Bank, Charterhouse Square, London

My name is Sak. I studied Biomedical Science at the London Metropolitan University and joined Dan’s team in 2005. Since then I have been closely involved in the OrchidTissue Bank.

There are two areas which I am responsible for.The first is to meet with patients who are about to have an operation involving the removal of tumour tissue. Once their consultants and surgeons have explained the operation and what is going to happen during the surgery, it is my job to ask whether some of their tumour tissue can be stored at the OrchidTissue Bank. Often I am asked about new research developments and whether there will be a cure for prostate or testicular cancer in the next few years.Telling patients and their families about the latest research activities and the vital role the OrchidTissue Bank plays in research, both in the UK and across the world, is really important.The more tissue samples we have, the better will be our chances of understanding what happens in these cancers and of finding new treatments.

Figure 1 Tissue microarray with different cores on glass slides : each spot is a different patient sample!

Nearly all the patients I meet want to be involved and are happy to provide a tissue sample. Being part of the research work makes them feel valuable.

As one patient said “it’s a way of fighting back - making sure that in the future my kids and their kids don’t go through what I have.”

The other role I have is based in the OrchidTissue Bank at Charterhouse Square in London.The tissues I collect are stored in a chemical called liquid nitrogen.This liquid has a temperature of -196 degrees and storing fresh tissue in it is a way of preserving the tissue.This tissue is then cut into very thin sections and is dyed using two stains which are called hematoxylin and eosin.These two dyes are absorbed by different parts of the cell.The staining helps to identify different parts of the tissue when looking through a microscope.The tissue is then used in research to identify changes at microscopic level.Tissue is also preserved in a chemical solution called formalin and then stored in wax.This fixative process helps to preserve the tissue for a very long time. Formalin preserved tissue is now being used to prepare tissue microarrays.These are slides with small cylindrical tissue cores which are taken from formalin fixed tissues. Each slide can hold hundreds of samples – the slide looks like a small surgery plaster with tiny holes! These slides are then analysed using different scientific techniques. One of them is called immunohistochemistry which highlights specificmolecules on a tumour to help better classify the disease and to help with therapies.

As well as storing the tissue we may also keep information about the patient – with their consent. We need to know the type of tumour they have, their course of treatment, age and health.We can analyse tissue before and after patients’ treatment and look at the effects of different treatment therapies on different cancer types. The information we collect on different cancer types can be used by researchers around the world. For example we recently supplied fresh frozen prostate tissue sections to one of the groups we collaborate with at Barts for use in their molecular oncology work.This involves looking at tissue at the basic level of its origin. Also the OrchidTissue Bank is closely involved with scientists from the UK and USA who formed TheTrans-Atlantic Prostate Group. The idea b ehind the collaboration is to discover which prostate cancer patients do not require any treatment as some tumours grow only extremely slowly.Working on tumour tissue samples has many advantages.You can really see the building blocks of a human body, from the cell or even smaller than a cell to the creation of an organ and the difference between a healthy tissue to an abnormal tissue.The appearance of tumour tissue is very different compared to the appearance of normal tissue as the usual structure is altered because of the changes that have occurred.

Being part of Dan’s team and helping other researchers is very rewarding. I came into science wanting to make a difference – and when I go home at the end of the day I know the work I am doing is helping to improve men’s lives both today and in the future.

On behalf of me and the rest of my team I hope you will support our vital work.

Every penny makes a difference.