Monthly Newsletter

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, today announced that the Parkinson's UK and MS Society Tissue Bank, which supplies the research community with high-quality Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis (MS) tissues, is using its Finesse^® Microtome for the preparation of tissue samples for its neuropathological examinations. The implementation of the Thermo Scientific Finesse Microtome in the joint tissue bank has made diagnosis easier and accelerated throughput. In addition, the quality and the size of the sections produced has been enhanced, enabling the tissue bank to fully maintain the anatomical orientation of the samples that it prepares, which improves both reliability and speed of diagnosis. 

The tissue bank, jointly funded by Parkinson's UK and the MS Society, procures brain, spinal cord and other tissues that are bequeathed by donors, making them available to scientists investigating the causes of and treatments for diseases. Vital information about how the brain and spinal cord are damaged in Parkinson's disease and MS can be obtained by studying the tissue from people affected by these diseases and comparing it to unaffected donors. The donation of tissue and the preparation of tissue for research are therefore fundamental to furthering understanding of the causes of the diseases and for developing more effective treatments. The tissue bank's work is reliant on members of the public joining its brain donor registry, and it is imperative that more people sign up. 

Prior to the implementation of the Thermo Scientific Finesse Microtome, the tissue bank had been experiencing challenges with the quality of the samples that were being produced using its existing microtome. The instrument could only handle small block sizes, which significantly impacted upon the quality of the sections that were being created. Samples often had to reside across a number of different slides, which resulted in significant loss of tissue view. According to the tissue bank, one of the fundamental factors in deciding to implement the Finesse Microtome was the instrument's capability to handle larger block sizes. The larger blocks enable the tissue bank's neuropathologists to view important adjacent brain structures in one section, avoiding the need to switch between different slides. This has improved the speed and reliability of diagnosis. The tissue bank can also now supply larger block tissue sections to researchers. In addition, the Finesse Microtome provides the tissue bank with benefits of ease-of-use and high performance. 

Dr. David Dexter, one of the scientific directors at the tissue bank, comments: "The quality of the tissue samples that we produce greatly impacts on the performance of the tissue bank and, ultimately, the quality of the research. Since bringing the new instrument into the laboratory, its capability to handle larger blocks as well as the enhanced quality of the sections it produces has meant that our neuropathologist's ability to diagnose cases has dramatically improved." 

Giulio Cerroni, vice president of Thermo Fisher Scientific commercial operations in Europe, the Middle East and Asia Pacific for anatomical pathology, said "At Thermo Fisher, we are working to provide instrumentation that will improve our customer's workflows and make the day-to-day processes that they undertake easier. The work of the tissue bank is vital to furthering understanding of the diseases and it is great to see that the instrument is achieving our goals by improving the diagnosis of cases." 

To find out more about the Parkinson's brain donor register please visit www.parkinsons.org.uk. 

To find out more about the MS Society brain donation register please visit www.mssociety.org.uk. 

For more information about the Thermo Scientific Finesse Microtome, please call + 44 (0)800 018 9396 or visit www.thermoscientific.com/pathology.  

Thermo Scientific is part of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science.