Mass Spectrometry and Analytical Pharmacology Shared Resource (MSAPSR)

Laser Capture Microdissection Instrumentation and Services

Laser capture microdissection (LCM) provides researchers with access to cutting-edge technology for the isolation of single cells or specific cell populations from frozen/FFPE tissue sections, bone sections and cell culture. The captured cells of interest can then be post-processed for a wide range of downstream assays including DNA, RNA, proteomic, lipidomic, metabolomic and pharmaceutical quantitation.

LCM is available to researchers for their scientific needs and can be utilized in conjunction with our other MSAP cores. Some examples of common microdissection experiments include:

• Regions of interest from unstained sections
• Single cells, different cell phenotypes or subclones from histologically stained or immunofluorescence stained/labeled tissue samples
• Non-cellular tissue components – Extracellular matrix etc.
• Chromosome isolation
• Living cells from cell cultures
• Bacteria/yeast

Laser Capture Microdissection Services offered by the shared resource include:

• Consultation and study design.

• Advice and guidance on sample preparation and microdissection.
• Support for technical and scientific writing of grant proposals and manuscripts.
• User training

Laser Capture Microdissection Downstream Assay Examples:

• PCR
• Next-Generation Sequencing
• Mass Spectrometry
  • Pharmaceutical quantitation
  • Proteomics
  • Lipidomics
  • Metabolomics

Laser Capture Microdissection Equipment

Leica LMD 6 and 7: The core houses two Leica LMD scopes that are used to isolate single cells and regions of interest from tissue sections, bone sections and cell culture.