What’s New
The Assay Lab is Moving
The BSC Laboratory is in the process of moving from its current location in the basement of the University of Rochester to a new space on the first floor of the same building. While in transition, there may be some delay in the processing of new samples submitted...
Annual Meeting Registration
Registration for the 2025 meeting is now open. We have revised the registration form to make it more streamlined and flexible. In particular: The conference fees will be $75, with a discounted rate of $25 for students. When you select your title in the first line,...
Azure B BSC Certification requirement change
As of March 3rd of 2025, the BSC Assay laboratory changed the BSC Certification requirements for Azure B. Test Current Requirement Old Requirement UV-Vis 645-649 nm 1.02-1.18 R ratio Quantitation Minimum 80% (Updated from a Minimum 89%) HPLC Thiazine...
2025 Annual Conference
The theme for this year's Conference is Methods and applications in staining, biomarkers, and therapeutics. Our Annual Conference this year is set to be in Atlanta, GA; the tentative date is Friday, October 31. More information coming soon!
Kudos
I was thrilled to learn that, effective January first, Mr. H. Lamar Jones has assumed the Presidency of the National Society for Histotechnology. Mr Jones served as a NSH liaison with us in the late 1990's and was a member of our Board of Trustees from 2004 to 2020. ...
Website Redesign
Great News! Yesterday we signed a contract with a web designer to revamp our web site to improve both its appearance and navigation, and for it to better serve the needs of vendors, members, and others in the staining community. Early designing is already underway,...
A New Use for Schiff’s Reagent
Richard W. Dapson writes, on 15th October 2021: Detection of formaldehyde in milk. Get your cell phones ready: there is a new use for Schiff's reagent! But first, let's review what Schiff's reagent is and does. The classic Schiff reagent is a decolorized version of...
“Image fraud” — a problem for the scientific literature
Richard W. Horobin, Associate Editor, Biotechnic & Histochemistry, writes: Scientific frauds involving high-prestige institutions, public enquiries and dismissals can become media events. Retractions of published papers by senior authors or publishers, not so much...
The stain extracted from roselle is not daphniphylline
Rosemary B. Bassey writes on 28th August 2021: Major pigment in Hibiscus sabdariffa: Hibiscin, now known as Daphniphylline? Setting the record straight! “The major pigment, formerly reported as hibiscin, has been identified as daphniphylline” [1]. This statement,...
What are tissue marking inks?
For an excised tumor it is often important to relate the surfaces of the specimen to their original anatomical locations, to locate any remaining neoplastic tissue that still needs to be removed. Tissue inks are used for painting surfaces in different colors. An ideal...