Dr. Perl,
We use the Ventana Nexes at Harris. In the past I have been a huge fan, but
with the latest round of price increases my boss mentioned, I must say, my
opinion has changed a little.
The system itself is great if you have a large lab where a more than two
people will use it.  It is pretty much "idiot proof".  It is quite difficult
to really mess anything up.  The down side is , it's idiot proof.  The
parameters are quite inflexible.  you can change only a few of the times in
reagents, there is no way to heat just a few slides (it's all or nothing
when it comes to heat), and as has been mentioned, you have to use their
reagents for your detection system and their holders for the few things you
can "user fill", and that can be quite an adventure!
In our lab the system works great, but it does eat up the bucks. we have one
tech who uses it full time and one who fills in for vacations, and for them
it works great.  If I ever get my own lab (oh to dream....), I'm going for a
more open system, though.
Fell free to contact me with any questions,
Wanda Shotsberger
Harris Methodist Hospital
Fort Worth, Texas
----- Original Message -----
From: perl <perl@agri.huji.ac.il>
To: <Histonet@pathology.swmed.edu>
Sent: Thursday, February 17, 2000 2:38 AM
Subject: Autostainer for IHC


> Dear Histonetters,
>
> We are in the process of purchasing an Automated
> immunohistochemical stainer.
> If anyone has experience in this field, please let me know which
> system would you recommend.
> Here we can by machines made by: Ventana, Lab Vision, Lleica.
>
> Samuel
> Dr Samuel Perl
> Head, Dept. of Pathology
> Kimron Veterinary Institute
> P.O.Box 12, 50250 Bet Dagan
> ISRAEL
> E-mail: perl@agri.huji.ac.il  Fax: (972)39681730  Phone: (972) 39681635
>
>