# Core C: Pathology, Biospecimen and Immune Profiling

> **NIH NIH U19** · UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA · 2020 · $412,236

## Abstract

The Pathology, Biospecimen and Immune Profiling Core will select, bank, and provide centralized
pathologic analysis for biospecimens collected in the RESPOND cohort, ensuring that uniformly high quality
biospecimen analytes are available for all downstream analyses. The Core will principally support Projects 2,
3 and 4 with biospecimens, biospecimen analytes and pathologic and image databases. The major functions
of the Core are to pathologically annotate and bank formalin fixed paraffin embedded (FFPE) prostate tumor
tissue for approximately 3,000 patients within RESPOND (Projects 2, 3 and 4), isolate and quantify nucleic
acids from these tissues (Project 3) and from 7,500 saliva samples (Project 2) with appropriate quality
control/quality assurance measures, and test and implement image analysis technologies for interrogating
tumor-associated immune infiltrates in situ (Project 4). The Core’s activities will be centered at Johns Hopkins
University (JHU) and will leverage the numerous ongoing biospecimen banking efforts and prostate tumor
tissue analyses at JHU, including the JHU Prostate Cancer SPORE Biospecimen/Pathology Core and the
CDMRP Prostate Cancer Biorepository Network (PCBN). The core will be led by two urologic pathologists,
Tamara Lotan MD (PI, JHU) and Angelo M. De Marzo MD PhD (co-I, JHU) as well as two scientists with
extensive expertise for specific biospecimen analyses relevant to the Core, Karen Sfanos PhD (co-I, JHU) and
Chris Haiman (co-I, USC). In addition to extensive support for 3 Projects, the Core’s biobank and database will
provide an ongoing resource for all future research endeavors utilizing the RESPOND cohort and its
biospecimens.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9982841
- **Project number:** 5U19CA214253-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Tamara Levin Lotan
- **Activity code:** U19 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $412,236
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-07-05 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9982841

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9982841, Core C: Pathology, Biospecimen and Immune Profiling (5U19CA214253-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9982841. Licensed CC0.

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