training
No news so far on the Pippin front. Renee and I put up posters around the neighborhood yesterday so we're hoping that this morning, as families make their way to and from chuch, someone will see Pip's picture on a poster and call us with some information.
This past Friday I did some training. The research biz is all about learning, y'know?
In this case, since we're starting to do so many tumor sections, my boss decided to buy her own microtome and have me do the sectioning myself. This was partly due to cost but more due to not having to wait when Pathology was backed up with orders.
To the left you can see the hands and microtome of the Pathology tech that usually does our sectioning. She let me watch and get some pointers so I could do it myself next time.
She's very good and I'll be a lot slower at the sectioning, but since we often have to wait 2 weeks or more for large orders in the end it's well worth doing it in-house (that means me doing it LOL).
The previous picture was the slicing of the paraffin section with additional blocks of tumor seen on ice in the background. Since we're dealing with breast tissue, which is very fatty, it's imperative that the tissue and paraffin is kept quite cold else it'll "melt" while you're trying to slice it. That would be messy and would waste tissue.
The picture to the left is the Tech mounting the sliced tissue onto a slide. What you do is slice the tissue very thin--5 microns, in this case--and then drop the slice into a water bath where it'll float on top. Then you place a slide into the water underneath and using a sharp dissecting needle position the tissue section just above the slide and then lift the slide. The section will be on the slide and then you need to let it sit for at least 24 hours before staining. If you don't--the tissue will lift off of the slide. It needs to bond onto the slide.
Training--you gotta love it. Y'know?
This past Friday I did some training. The research biz is all about learning, y'know?In this case, since we're starting to do so many tumor sections, my boss decided to buy her own microtome and have me do the sectioning myself. This was partly due to cost but more due to not having to wait when Pathology was backed up with orders.
To the left you can see the hands and microtome of the Pathology tech that usually does our sectioning. She let me watch and get some pointers so I could do it myself next time.
She's very good and I'll be a lot slower at the sectioning, but since we often have to wait 2 weeks or more for large orders in the end it's well worth doing it in-house (that means me doing it LOL).
The previous picture was the slicing of the paraffin section with additional blocks of tumor seen on ice in the background. Since we're dealing with breast tissue, which is very fatty, it's imperative that the tissue and paraffin is kept quite cold else it'll "melt" while you're trying to slice it. That would be messy and would waste tissue.The picture to the left is the Tech mounting the sliced tissue onto a slide. What you do is slice the tissue very thin--5 microns, in this case--and then drop the slice into a water bath where it'll float on top. Then you place a slide into the water underneath and using a sharp dissecting needle position the tissue section just above the slide and then lift the slide. The section will be on the slide and then you need to let it sit for at least 24 hours before staining. If you don't--the tissue will lift off of the slide. It needs to bond onto the slide.
Training--you gotta love it. Y'know?
Comments
Michele sent me. Have a nice weekend !