Histology services

The Jackson Laboratory offers histology services for JAX® Mice strains and customer strains maintained at our Maine and California facilities. Both routine and specialized histological methods are available on a fee-for-service basis. We are not accepting shipment of tissues or mice from external sources at this time.

Read customer testimonials about this service

Services available include:

About us

Seven full time histotechnologists, with over 80 combined years of practical histology experience, conduct routine and specialized tissue preparation including paraffin embedding, sectioning, and staining (regular and special stains). Key instrumentation includes VIP vacuum infiltration tissue processors, two paraffin embedding centers and standard rotary (manual and semi-automated) microtomes for paraffin sectioning. Specific staining protocols are automated running on a programmable stainer and accompanying cover-slipper, allowing skilled service staff to focus on more technically demanding special stains. The total operation is located on the Bar Harbor campus and occupies over 1300 sq ft of newly renovated laboratory space.

Fixatives used

The three most common fixatives for paraffin-embedded tissue are Telly's (ethanol based), modified Bouins (aqueous based), and 4% PFA (paraformaldehyde). The standard fixation time for both Telly's and Bouins is 24 hours, but fixation times can be adapted to meet your needs.

For more detail on fixatives available, please see our fixatives page.

For detailed information on available stains, please see our available stains page.

For answers to commonly asked questions regarding this service, please see our  Histology Frequently Asked Questions page.

Pricing

Item Price
Paraffin Embed Only (per block) $3.25
Sectioning Unstained Slide (per slide) $6.25
H&E 1X3 (per slide) $6.50
Special Stain Routine (per slide) $7.00
Special Stain Metal (per slide) $13.00
Container for up to 100 slides $6.45
Container for up to 50 slides $5.75
Container for up to 25 slides $1.75

Shipping costs are not included in the above prices.

How to order

To inquire about our histology services, please contact orderquest@jax.org or call 1-800-422-6423.

Testimonials

"We have been repeatedly using the JAX® Histology Services, and we have been very satisfied with the quality of the service and in particular with the quality of the histological sections."

Michael Detmar, M.D.
Professor of Pharmacogenomics
Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) Zurich

“…I have been very happy with your excellent and speedy service"

Gloria V. Callard, Ph.D.
Department of Biology
Boston University

“I have worked with Jackson Laboratory Histology Services for the last two years and am very pleased with the level of expertise and professionalism.  Turn around time was very reasonable… There is a high degree of consistency from sample batch to sample batch.”

Carol C. Linder, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Biology
New Mexico Highlands University

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