Sarah A. Mack has over a decade of experience as a histotechnician, with a main focus on preparation, processing and analysis of both calcified and soft tissues of the musculoskeletal system. In addition to providing consulting, advice and assistance to clients of the HBMI Core, Sarah serves as its Manager, supervising all histology-based projects within the Center of Musculoskeletal Research. Sarah supervises the generation of musculoskeletal tissue biorepositories, and oversees the creation and maintenance of reagent stocks and standard protocols. She provides hands-on assistance in the preparation of histological tissues, including decalcification, automated paraffin processing, orientation before embedding and sectioning of paraffin and frozen tissue.
Sarah currently serves as Chair of the Hard Tissue Committee for the National Society of Histotechnology and as President of the New York State Histotechnological Society. She has been an active member in both societies for more than 15 years, providing information and knowledge to histologists that work in both scientific and clinical lab settings.
After a joint has been decalcified, the loss of proteoglycans in the articular cartilage causes it to fold and ripple during the staining process. When this occurs, it makes it impossible to perform histo-morphometry or measurements of the cartilage.
The content of this webinar will encompass detailed technical descriptions of novel and state-of-the-art methods to decalcify tissue samples that will be embedded in paraffin or for frozen sectioning for molecular and nucleic acid analysis for basic research...
