IBMS Congress

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Laser dissection on molecular work for histodissection

Session 2

Cellular Pathology

Laser dissection on molecular work for histodissection

Prof Paul Murray, University of Birmingham

Over recent years dramatic advances in molecular technology have provided new tools to analyse the underlying processes that result in disease. However the quality, reliability and interpretation of these data are highly dependent on the homogeneity of the cell type under investigation.

Fundamentally, tissues are heterogeneous and complicated structures composed of admixtures of cell types. Microdissection of tissue sections and cytological preparations has become an increasingly important technique for cell isolation, facilitating the in vivo examination of cells that are otherwise inaccessible by traditional methodology. Several methods of microdissection have been developed, ranging from ablation of unwanted cellular material to manual micro-manipulation, however these approaches are frequently time consuming, tedious, imprecise and are highly dependent on operator dexterity.

Such factors limit their practical usefulness. This paper will consider the application of next generation microdissection to the molecular analysis of cells isolated from complex tissues and will focus on the downstream applications in cancer research.