The departmental clinical and research functions are carried out in the following locations:  Kingston General Hospital and Hotel Deu Hospital; Richardson Laboratory, the University building for Pathology and Molecular Medicine; the Cancer Research Laboratories in Botterell Hall; and the Division of Cancer Biology and Genetics in the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute. 

The Department has an array of well equipped and fully staffed core research facilities which provide high quality current technology to both internal and external investigators.

The Tissue Microarray (TMA) Facility, in the departmental Queen’s Laboratory for Molecular Pathology, was established through a partnership with the National Cancer Institute of Canada – Clinical Trials Group (NCIC-CTG) and is housed in Richardson Laboratory and the contiguous Douglas Wing of KGH.  Its equipment includes a Tissue Arrayer, an Aperio ScanScope SC slide scanner and Ventana Discovery immunostainer.  The facility provides services in TMA design and construction, TMA histology and immunohistochemistry and digital slide scanning for both research and educational applications.  For more information contact Mr. Shakeel Virk.

Gene Microarray Facility

As part of the Queen’s Laboratory for Molecular Pathology, the Gene Microarray Facility was established through a partnership with the Queen’s Cancer Research Institute and is housed in Richardson Laboratory.  Its equipment includes Agilent and Perkin Elmer scanners, an Agilent Bioanalyzer and a Nanodrop.  The facility offers a wide range of nucleic acid technology services including extractions and PCR-based assays, cDNA, genomic DNA labelling, RNA amplification, microRNA profiling and microarray hybridization.  For more information contact Dr. Harriet Feilotter. 

Morphologic Services Facility

The Morphologic Services Facility is housed in Richardson Laboratory.  It is fully equipped for the preparation of tissues for ultrastructural and light microscopic analysis and provides technical services for research applications of electron microscopy and routine histology.   In addition, the facility provides the technical support for diagnostic electron microscopy performed on clinical material.  For more information contact Mr. Oliver Jones.

Tumour Banks

Through a partnership with the NCIC-CTG, the department houses and administers a Bank of clinical samples, including formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumour tissue, which are derived from NCIC clinical trials.  The bank is housed in the Douglas Wing of the KGH and is integrated with the Tissue Microarray Facility.  Through a collaboration with the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, the department operates a tumour bank which collects fresh frozen tissue and blood samples from cancer patients as well as comprehensive matched pathologic and longitudinal clinical data.  For more information contact Mr. Shakeel Virk.