Rene, 

Just to clarify, the Lab Vision Autostainers (three models) and the Dako
Autostainer and Autostainer Plus are all manufactured by Lab Vision. The
BioCare Nemesis 7200, Richard Allan 710i, and Axiom are also made by Lab
Vision. Each uses the same basic platform and allows fully open reagent use.


The PreTreatment Module for deparaffinization and AR allows open reagent use
as well.

However, some labs opt for "reagent rental" to avoid the captial equipment
budget process, so then they are tied into the company for some reagents
(whichever company they buy from).

Tim Morken
Lab Vision - Neomarkers
web: www.labvision.com
 
Free webhosting for US State Histotechnology Societies:
http://www.labvisioncorp.com/demowebsite/index.cfm



From: Rene J Buesa  

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
----

Dear Joyce:
  Unless you are short in trained personnel and perform more than 100 IHC
slides daily, I personally do not see the "advantage" of limiting yourself
to a company that will sell you proprietary (and expensive) reagents that
will lead you to a "closed system".
  "Ventana" has a new IHC automatic instrument that also deparafinizes and
performs HIER and I have heard both good and bad things about it.
  I always used Dako and laboratories that I have consulted for also use
Dako (up to 3 autostainers) and the "beautity" of the Dako instrument is
that it is an "open" technology that you can use even with home made
reagents (HIER buffers, Ab diluents) as well as any Ab from any
manufacturer.
  To dewax your slides will take less than 30 minutes (and it can be done
with your regular H&E autostainer) and HIER requires, at the most, 1 hour,
and you don't have to stand by during that time.
  I would not commit myself to a single manufacturer product.
  I hope that this will help you!
  René J. 

meint002  wrote:
  Dear Histos,

I am in the process of determining which immunostainer to purchase for our
lab. DAKO and Lab Vision are the main vendors at the moment. Lab Vision has
a new device that they claim will automate the dewaxing and epitope recovery
on your slide before you apply the antibodies. 

Does anyone have experience with this Pre-treatment module or a device of a
similar nature? If so, do they work very well, or are they worth the
expense? I think you can use your own reagents for the various buffers - so
that could keep the reagent cost down some. Otherwise, they would be happy
to sell you their own products.

Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. 
Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Joyce Meints
Histologist

University of Minnesota
Paul and Sheila Wellstone Muscular Dystrophy Center
MMC 206
420 Washington St. SE
Minneapolis, MN 55455-0392

e-mail: meint002@umn.edu
lab phone: 612-626-4703



_______________________________________________
Histonet mailing list
Histonet@lists.utsouthwestern.edu
http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet