Equipment and Infrastructure

The Histology Core Facility is fully equipped with state-of-the-art instrumentation to support both basic and advanced histological applications. A comprehensive range of equipment is available through the do-it-yourself (DIY) platform, free of charge for members of the Department of Biomedicine (DBM).

Available equipment includes:

• Two tissue processors and two tissue embedding stations
• Three semi-automatic microtomes
• One manual microtome
• One microwave tissue processor
• One ThermoBrite FISH hybridization system
• One slide printer and one cassette printer
• Two cryostats
• One vibratome
• One whole-slide scanner (Hamamatsu S60)
• One image analysis workstation (HALO / HALO AI software)
• Three bench-top microscopes

Services and Technical Support

In addition to access to equipment, the facility provides expert services and hands-on technical support, including:

• Routine histological staining (H&E, PAS, Safranin-O, Picrosirius Red), performed using the Gemini automated stainer
  (free of charge for DBM research groups)
• Immunohistochemistry (IHC), immunofluorescence (IF), and in situ hybridization (ISH), performed on the Ventana Discovery Ultra automated platform
  (fee-based service)
• Leica Cell DIVE for highly multiplexed spatial protein analysis
• 10x Genomics Xenium platform for spatial transcriptomics
• Design and production of tissue microarrays (TMAs)
• Laser capture microdissection
• Tissue clearing using the Logos X-CLARITY system