# Core B: Tissue Specimen Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · YALE UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $354,404

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY – Core B (Biospecimen Core)
Primary (bone marrow and thymus) and secondary (tonsil, lymph node, spleen and others) lymphoid organs
are among the most dynamic tissues throughout an individual’s lifetime. The bone marrow gives rise to
hundreds of billions of cells each day, the thymus educates T-cells to recognize self and non-self and tonsils,
lymph nodes, spleen and others are key to daily defense against invading organisms and maintenance of
cellular homeostasis. Cellular senescence in these lymphoid tissues have been observed and presumably
associated with stress-induced or age-related functional impairment. However, what types or subtypes of
senescent cells are present and their spatial heterogeneity in in the tissue context as well as how these cells
impact the tissue environments remain poorly understood, highlighting a pressing need to map senescent cells
and the surround environments in these tissues and generate biomarkers to define spatial and phenotypic
heterogeneity in cellular senescence. The Biospecimen Core will fulfill a critical role in the Yale SenNet TMC to
procure, process, and histologically annotate lymphoid tissue specimens for further analysis in the Biological
Analysis Core to generate molecular and cellular maps of senescent cells. It will leverage and significantly
expand upon the Yale Hematology Tissue Bank’s existing structure and further leverage the existing
collaborations between Hematology (Dr. Halene), Pathology (Dr. Xu), Immunobiology (Dr. Craft), Laboratory
Medicine and YNHH Health Data Science (Dr. Schulz), and Surgery (Dr. Kodadek) to collect lymphoid tissue
and concurrent and longitudinal multi-specimen blood samples from healthy individuals. The Biospecimen
Core will collect, process, aliquot, catalog, annotate high quality tissue samples and distribute these to the Yale
SenNET Biological Analysis Core and SenNET investigators. The Biospecimen Core will leverage its existing
Freezerworks database to integrate all data from patient to tissue aliquot and link this data to clinical and
research databases in a HIPAA compliant and auditable fashion. The tissue specimens including tissue
sections and biofluids are further analyzed by the Biological Analysis Core and the specimen metadata will be
managed in the Data Analysis Core for integrated analysis and sharing.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10384401
- **Project number:** 1U54AG076043-01
- **Recipient organization:** YALE UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Stephanie Halene
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $354,404
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-30 → 2026-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10384401

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10384401, Core B: Tissue Specimen Core (1U54AG076043-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10384401. Licensed CC0.

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