Atlas Antibodies Blog

Applied biological or biomedical research aims to reach a thorough understanding of the physiology of organisms and to further development of disease therapeutics. Some scientific discoveries have narrow applicability or scope and are sometimes serendipitous or even entirely unexpected. Other have wider applicability and transferability having proved enormously useful over a wide range of domains. Among the latter are research antibodies. Read more to discover how they help progressing science.

Washing- and staining solutions, blocking agents, detection and mounting solutions. Successful immunohistochemical staining requires reliable, high-quality reagents to fixate, to wash and permeabilize the tissue. But what is the rationale behind the fact that certain buffers or storage conditions are better to use than other, or is it all just empiric?

Today we meet with Dr. Cecilia Lindskog, group leader at Uppsala University in Sweden, and the site director of the Tissue Atlas part of the Human Protein Atlas (HPA). Her research is focused on protein science, understanding the biology and functions of human proteins expressed in different organs, and the underlying mechanisms leading to cancer and other diseases. We asked her 10 questions about the past, the present, and the future of the Tissue Atlas.

As a rule, the complex biology and spatial organization of tissues and solid tumors poses a scientific and diagnostic challenge that is not sufficiently well addressed by standard immunohistochemistry (IHC) procedures. How come this is the case? The answer is that single IHC staining provides data on only one marker at a time. So, how do you stain multiple protein in the same cell or tissue?

In this blog, we would like to tell you about that time when researchers interested in a new therapeutic target for patients with type 2 diabetes, knocked at our door asking for help, and how we used the Tissue Atlas, part of the Human Protein Atlas project, to answer their questions. But let’s start from the beginning.

Today we meet with Dr. Kristian Moller, Principal Scientist at Altas Antibodies, to ask him 10 questions about past, present, and future of multiplex immunohistochemistry.

Today we meet with Dr. Caroline Kampf to ask her 10 questions about past, present, and future of immunohistochemistry (IHC). 

How many samples? How much money and time have you wasted trying to unmask a protein on your IHC samples? Tissue fixation in immunohistochemistry often negatively impacts on your immunostaining by masking the epitope of interest. Read on to learn about the most common antigen retrieval methods used to restore epitope-antibody binding.

Would you print your childhood best and precious memories on a low-quality photographic film? I wouldn’t. However, just like me, you probably have hundreds of old faded yellow photos abandoned in a drawer. Images quality relies on high-quality printing films…and so does your immunohistochemical staining. Tissue handling and tissue processing determine the quality of your IHC results. You want high resolution?  Let’s understand how to achieve it.

 “I don’t know why I am doing this. I can’t handle it!”  You thought you knew how to recognize and solve your IHC artifacts but after reading the troubleshooting guide the answers seem so far away. Long lists of tips. Examples too difficult to understand. Not-so-friendly images. Feeling overwhelmed? You are not alone. Although sometimes troubleshooting seems unbearable, there is no need to worry! Troubleshooting is nothing more than the logical elimination of variables.