Histology Core Facility

Our Core-Facility provides a central infrastructure for high through-put, high- quality and high-speed Histology using state-of-the-art technologies on validated and fully automated systems performed by experienced operators.

Tissue-based analyses are essential for scientific achievements across the entire spectrum of research activities, from fundamental to preclinical/translational and clinical research. 

Histology is a powerful tool used for the identification of certain structures, individual cell-types and with immunohistochemistry technology of target proteins. This is effective in assessing the localisation of proteins in the cell, comparing the protein-expression in a heterogeneous cell population, and can be used to identify sub-populations of cells based on specific markers. It is important in the post-genomic era and necessary for uncovering protein function. Additional in situ hybridization allows precise localization of a specific segment of nucleic acid, using riboprobes also asses the degree of protein expression.

Quality assurance and quality control take part throughout the whole workflow at the different levels of customer reporting, sample preparation, sample processing, staining, digital pathology and data analysis for reproducible, reliable results.

Project consulting supports you in study design, choice of technology, supervision in result parts and drawing conclusions to get answers to your scientific questions in an efficient manner.

Contact

If you are interested in our Facility and our work please view the following contacts:


Initial consultation:

 Mathias.Heikenwaelder@med.uni-tuebingen.de


Technical Head:

Jenny.Hetzer@med.uni-tuebingen.de


Analysing Support:

Suchira.Gallage@med.uni-tuebingen.de


Office:

+49 7071 29-61456


Laboratory:

 07071 29-61487


Leica Histocore Pegasus Plus & Leica Histocore Arcadia Embedding Station

Tissue Processing
  • Dehydration, Clearance, Infiltration and Embedding
  • Fully automated, validated programs in two individual chambers and internal barcode trace back system leads to constant high quality of Formalin Fixed Paraffin Embedded Samples (FFPE).
  • Protocols can be easily adjusted for customer or sample requires.

Leica Microtome Histocore Autocut &Epredia HM325 STS & Leica Cryostat CM3050S

Sectioning FFPE
  • Step cuts for observing whole depth of tissue or consecutive cuts for immunolabelling of similar cell layer and area with different parameters, sterile conditions for bacterial analysis can be provided.
  • Additional microtome with section transfer system for high- through-put.

Sectioning Cryofixed Material

Adjustable deep temperature microtome (Cryostat) used for fresh frozen tissue. Denaturation during formalin fixation can lead to inaccessible Epitope and inhibit Antigen bonding. Alternative way for tissue preservation, for example if lipids are of interest since those are removed from tissue during clearing step of processing FFPE Samples.

Leica Histocore Spectra Workstation & Coverslipper

Standard Staining
  • The dye interacts directly with the corresponding tissue or cell component and forms an ionic bond with, for example Hematoxylin-Eosin Staining (H&E)
  • Chemical staining methods are used to detect certain substances in cells or tissues, for example detection of collagen fibers, mucins, glycosaminoglycans or divalent or trivalent iron, for example PAS-Reaction.
  • Includes fully automated heat based dewax step, robot technology for cover-slipping.

Leica BondMax & Leica Bond RX

Immunohistochemistry staining (IHC)
  • Based on for example enzyme labelled Antibody-bonding on specific epitopes that triggers color reaction after substrate conjugation. (chromogen). Doublestaining for subcellular differentiation.
  • Over 150 (human and murine) established protocols with reproducible, reliable results can answer most of scientific questions.
  • Establishment and Optimization of new antibodies or panels can be offered.
  • In situ hybridization (ISH)
  • Visualization of the reporter molecule allows to localize DNA or RNA sequences, using riboprobes asses degree of protein-expression.

Coming soon:

Immunofluorescence detection system and imaging


Leica Aperio AT2 Whole Slide Imaging (WSI) Brightfield

Digital Pathology

Utilizing high-through-put, automated digital pathology scanner, a whole slide imaging (WSI) is possible, under bright field conditions, at 20/40x magnification and z-stack conditions for high quality pictures.

Coming soon:

Automated and AI Based analysing software

to assist in the interpretation and quantification of biomarker expression within tissue sections.