For nearly 10 years HISTALIM provides services in the fields of histology, cytology and molecular biology for clients from a wide range of sectors including human and animal health, dermo-cosmetics, chemistry, environment, agronomics, agri-food industry…
Ranging from neurosciences to toxicity assessment, from the characterization of therapeutic antibodies to the evaluation of implantable medical devices…, our teams focus on accompanying each client to provide each of them with a perfectly controlled service. Our histological technical resources, our European network of histopathology experts, and our techniques in image processing and analysis enable us to meet efficiently each client’s specific need.
The wide variety of our activities pushes us to constantly question ourselves in order to best get used to the requirements of each field of activity and to meet the standards and regulations of the different sectors we work in.
HISTALIM, technical platform for histology, cytology and molecular biology offers laboratory services that combine:
Our expert services are:
Our laboratory has expertise in software development for designing image analysis tools, from simple application to contextualized multi-parametric analysis.
Custom made developments:
Not being dependent on software solutions, it is possible for us to design custom made image analysis solutions meant for very specific problems. This design work is always performed jointly by our IT and scientific teams.
Tissue MicroArray (TMA) makes it possible to apply a large number of labels on a collection of tissues, by reducing the costs and handling time. This technique is particularly suitable for the screening phases.
Our team makes paraffin or frozen blocks consisting of different tissue cores (TMA block) for performing multiplex histological analyses. This technique requires great expertise and enables tissue screening using a single slide.
These methods can be used to screen different tissue biomarkers and to select them based on their relevance. They are also often used to study and characterize the specificity of therapeutic antibodies. Lastly, the TMA techniques can be used to characterize collections of specimens (xenografts, tumour samples, etc.).
In order to meet the requirements of analyses suited to this technique, Histalim has developed software tools for studying virtual Tissue MicroArray slides (slide scanned by a scanner). It is now possible to cut each spot of a slide with its markups, to distinctly number it and to apply image analyses for each one, etc.
If you wish to highlight a target within your tissues without having an appropriate protocol, we can design and validate it for you.
The diversity of activities which are entrusted to us have enabled us to acquire great expertise with respect to the development of labels. We can therefore design and validate experimental protocols in all types of tissues or labels for projects involving histology, immunohistochemistry and in situ hybridization.
We can take charge of your projects right from design up to the validation of a protocol:
Our laboratory is equipped with the most recent tissue clearing technologies. It allows to perform histological analysis in 3 dimensions to whole organs.
The tissue clearing service has been developed to make tissues optically transparent. It allows the internal structures preservation and their permeability to macromolecules. The tissue structure is immobilized in a hydrogel to study biological systems using 3D imaging (confocal microscopy, bi/multiphoton microscopy, Light Sheet Fluorescence Microscopy …).
What advantages?
Our tissue clearing service is effective in less than 24h, we can ensure:
Our equipment
We are equipped with CLARITY™ Tissue Clearing System. The automaton is based on the CLARITY™ system, published in 2013 by Karl Deisseroth and Kwanghun Chung from Stanford University.
If your specimens are in the form of fixed or frozen tissues or as paraffin embedded tissue blocks, we cut the sections using various histological techniques while respecting the specificities of your project.
Trimming :
This step consists in taking samples from the fixed specimens (conventionally in formalin) and then including the sections of interest in the appropriate histological cassettes.
Paraffin wax impregnation & Inclusion :
The paraffin wax technique is the most commonly used method for studying tissue morphology. The impregnation protocols validated at HISTALIM are compatible with a majority of staining or labelling methods. The inclusion step is done in compliance with the RITA (Registry of Industrial Toxicology Animal-data) standard.
Microtomy & Cryotomy :'
Making paraffin embedded or frozen sections respectively have different advantages.
Paraffin embedded sections make it possible to preserve the tissue morphology better while offering the advantage of simple and stable preservation with time.
Frozen sections are used when one wishes to label soluble nutrients (eg.: mineral salts, polypeptides, etc.) or for labels which target elements sensitive to the effect of formalin (eg.: the epitopes of certain proteins can be revealed by immunohistochemistry only by using frozen sections).
Look at our presentation leaflet on our common techniques in histology
High density tissue section cutting :
We have the ability to make sections of undecalcified tissues which may have extremely high density levels (eg.: tissues with an implanted medical device). The samples are incorporated in semi rigid and rigid soft resin blocks, and then polymerized by photo-control (eg.: Polymethylmethacrylate: PMMA). This technique uses a diamond saw for making sections while maintaining the morphology of the various adjoining structures with precision.
If your specimens are in the form of fixed or frozen tissues or as paraffin embedded tissue blocks, we cut the sections using various histological techniques while respecting the specificities of your project.
Trimming :
This step consists in taking samples from the fixed specimens (conventionally in formalin) and then including the sections of interest in the appropriate histological cassettes.
Paraffin wax impregnation & Inclusion :
The paraffin wax technique is the most commonly used method for studying tissue morphology. The impregnation protocols validated at HISTALIM are compatible with a majority of staining or labelling methods. The inclusion step is done in compliance with the RITA (Registry of Industrial Toxicology Animal-data) standard.
Microtomy & Cryotomy :'
Making paraffin embedded or frozen sections respectively have different advantages.
Paraffin embedded sections make it possible to preserve the tissue morphology better while offering the advantage of simple and stable preservation with time.
Frozen sections are used when one wishes to label soluble nutrients (eg.: mineral salts, polypeptides, etc.) or for labels which target elements sensitive to the effect of formalin (eg.: the epitopes of certain proteins can be revealed by immunohistochemistry only by using frozen sections).
Look at our presentation leaflet on our common techniques in histology
High density tissue section cutting :
We have the ability to make sections of undecalcified tissues which may have extremely high density levels (eg.: tissues with an implanted medical device). The samples are incorporated in semi rigid and rigid soft resin blocks, and then polymerized by photo-control (eg.: Polymethylmethacrylate: PMMA). This technique uses a diamond saw for making sections while maintaining the morphology of the various adjoining structures with precision.
Access each phase of your project (discovery, preclinical, clinical, etc.) with the most appropriate expertise in histopathology, thanks to a network of experts with previously qualified skills.
The interpretation of histological slides requires hiring experts with skills specific to very specialized domains: evaluation of the toxicity of a compound, experimental pathology, clinical studies, work on medical devices, cosmetic and dermatological efficacy tests, etc.
Histalim has therefore established a European network of specialists spread over more than 5 countries (Germany,
Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, France, etc.).
Our services :
A histological work of quality must give rise to sharp, reliable and easy to read digital images. In view of this, our laboratory offers to scan your slides (via a NanoZoomer Hamamatsu).
Each slide scan produces a file corresponding to a «virtual slide» which has a great number of advantages:
In our histology laboratory, you benefit from a wide range of validated and standardized staining protocols. We perform these protocols for you by means of automated systems to ensure a high level of repeatability and reproducibility.
Histology for research and development of antibodies is also offered.
Benefit from a wide range of validated and standardized immunohistochemistry protocols. We perform these protocols for you by means of automated systems to ensure a high level of repeatability and reproducibility.
Our laboratory is equiped with automated systems (Ventanna Discovery, Ventana Benchmark and Dako Link), to provide repeatable and reproducible labels. At Histalim, it is possible to work:
HISTALIM has not received any reviews.
HISTALIM has not received any endorsements.