Histology Core Services

Leadership and Experience

Heidi Roehrich, MS, brings extensive knowledge in tissue procurement, preservation, tissue processing for paraffin and cryo-sectioning and other embedding techniques. Her specialization includes basic and advanced histological stains, immunohistochemistry and immunofluorescence.

“Beyond the routine work, I really enjoy designing assays, seeing projects through and thinking creatively to move the research forward,” she said.

Heidi recently developed a working protocol for whole frozen human donor tissue sections, with excellent preservation. This allows researchers to improve their molecular analysis and an increased antibody penetration.

Her longstanding scientific expertise is featured in more than 35 publications in peer-reviewed journals. She holds a Masters in Biology, Microbiology and Soil Sciences.

Lions Gift of Sight provides a range of high quality specimen preservation and customized histology services to eye researchers around the world. We partner with the Histology lab at the University of Minnesota’s Vision Core facility. Heidi Roehrich, MS, has managed the Histology Core Facility at the University for more than 20 years.

Contact Us

If you are a researcher interested in our Histology Core Services, please complete our Research Tissue Application. We will review your request, provide an estimate and contact you to submit your samples.
If you have questions about a potential project or would like to schedule a consultation meeting, please email us at [email protected].

Core Areas of Expertise and Services

Specialized in high-quality whole human globe tissue. We offer a wide variety of normal and diseased, paraffin or frozen whole human eye tissue sections through the periphery, macula and fovea
Research Histology: Tailored services for Biotech, Pharma and Academic Studies
Routine Histology for neuronal, soft and bone tissue
- Grossing
  - Processing
  - Paraffin embedding and rapid freezing (OCT method)
  - Microtome and Vibratome sectioning
  - Histological stains (standard H&E and special stains (including but not limited to: PAS, Oil Red O and Impression Cytology)
Immunohistochemical (IHC) & Immunofluorescence (IF) staining
High quality digital imaging suitable for publications and quantitative analysis
Assay design and technical consultation

Image showing drusen deposits on retina — *H & E staining of an* Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD) *frozen donor eye sections shows prominent drusen deposits present in the retina and Retinal Pigment Epithelium (RPE)*

Cryosections of human whole eye — Cryosections of a whole frozen human eye globe using antibodies to detect specific antigens, H&E staining for basic morphological assessment and visualizing reduced autofluorescence presence.

Histology slide sections — Human primary cultured limbal epithelial cells; Alcine-stained mouse intestine; zebra fish retina (H&E)

Mouse and human eye sections — Mouse retina (H&E); Human AMD retina with Drusen; mouse retina whole mount (CNV model)

Cryosection montage from an AMD donor through the macula, visualizing drusen and their deposits (orange asterisk) with H&E, IF and brightfield.

Facility Equipment

EVOS XL Core
HISTOCORE ARCADIA H Paraffin
Keyence BZ-X800 All-in-One Microscope
LEICA CM3050 S Cryostat
LEICA RM2255 Microtome
LI-COR ODYSSE F Infrared Scanner
BioRad IQ4 qPCR cycler
Nanodrop spectrophotometer
-80oC deep freezer
High-resolution Bright Field Microscopy
Nano F Fluorescence plate reader

Leadership and Experience