| CONSERVATION
OF TEMPORAL BONE COLLECTIONS |
The NIDCD
contract mandates the Registry to identify collections having potential value to research
and training in otopathology, but that are at risk of being discarded or lost, and to
develop ways to conserve them. The Registry serves as a broker in the process of
conserving such at-risk collections.
The Registry’s Scientific Advisory Council has
developed the following strategy to conserve at-risk human otopathology collections: Upon
identification of such a collection, a site visit is conducted by one of the
Registry’s investigators to assess the collection’s value. If found suitable for
conservation, scientific proposals are then solicited from active temporal bone
laboratories in United States. All proposals are evaluated for scientific merit by the
Council. The top ranked proposal is awarded the collection. The recipient laboratory is
required not only to conserve the collection, but also to share its data with the central
Registry database and with bonafide research scientists who wish to make use of it.
To date, two collections have been successfully conserved
the Hans Brunner Collection and the Melvin Strauss Collection:
The Hans Brunner Collection:
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Awarded to Jeffrey Harris, MD at the
University of California, San Diego |
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In 1995, the Hans Brunner Collection of
temporal bones was offered to the Registry for conservation by Fred H. Linthicum, Jr., MD
of the House Ear Institute. This collection which consists of 45 sets of temporal bones
from the pre-antibiotic era was awarded to Dr. Jeffrey Harris of the University of
California, San Diego. |
The
Melvin Strauss Collection:
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Awarded to Charles Wright, PhD, at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
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The Melvin Strauss Collection of temporal
bones contains about 100 temporal bones from infants and neonates. This collection was
awarded to Charles Wright, PhD at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center
who
is currently using it for studies on congenital cholesteatoma, otoconial cupular deposits
in children, developmental studies relating to microfissures that may be relevant to the
origin of perilymph fistulae, and for congenital defects of the ear. |
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