QCPU Room 1605
Laboratory Scientists: Oliver Jones
Our goal is to provide affordable, high quality histology services to the Queen's Research community. At QCPU our trained and experienced histologist Oliver Jones can provide a variety of histological services:
- Consultation for tissue preparation
- Processing
- Embedding
- Sectioning
- Curl sections
- H&E staining
- Special staining*
- Cryostat sectioning for frozen tissue
- Electron Microscope sample prepartion and imaging using a Transmission Electron Microscope at the Reactor Materials Testing Laboratory
*Special stains: Sirius Red, Masson Trichrome, Periodic Acid Schiff's (PAS), Reticulium, Martius Scarlet Blue, Aniline Blue and Grocott's Methenamine silver etc.
Sirius red stain of fibrous tissue in the kidney

Kidney tissue stained with Masson trichrome. Connective tissue in blue, nucleus in red/purple and cytoplasm in pink.
Periodic acid–Schiff (PAS) staining of glomerulus in the kidney. A staining method used to detect polysaccharides such as glycogen, and mucosubstances such as glycoproteins, glycolipids and mucins in tissues.
Reticulum stain of liver cells. This stain highlights the reticular fibers
Martius Scarlet Blue of Plancenta. A trichrome stain for fibrin and connective tissue
Grogott's Methenamine Silver stain of fungi in lung tissue
The HistoCore PEARL tissue processor combines a compact design with the essential features needed in the laboratory: User safety and ease-of-use. This fully enclosed tissue processor provides high-end reliability with a new retort design, and allows safe and reliable conventional processing with a 200 cassette per run capacity.
The HistoCore Arcadia modular tissue embedding system incorporates two separate components, the Arcadia H heated embedding module and the Arcadia C cold plate. The independent modules offer the flexibility to arrange the embedding workflow in the direction that best suits your laboratory.
The HistoCore Arcadia H paraffin dispenser allows for simple operation and precise control; resulting in improved quality, a smooth workflow, reliability and speed of your embedding work.
HistoCore Arcadia C is a cold plate holding more than 60/65 cassettes on its large working surface. Cooling efficiency is important, so the cold plate was designed with an environment adaptive control module to make sure the operating temperature is always stabilized at -6 °C.
The Leica CM1860 is your perfect assistant for high-quality, fast and safe sectioning.This high-throughput cryostat delivers diagnostic confidence by reliably producing quality sections to help provide an accurate diagnosis - even with the most complicated tissue types.
Staff near the cryostat is protected by the antimicrobial nano-silver coating, AgProtect,which provides outstanding safety by reducing exposure to surface pathogens. AgProtect covers the cryostat’s external upper surfaces and constantly protects individuals in the work area by penetrating the membranes of microbes to prevent replication.
The unique premium blade holder safety features combined with the ergonomics of a designated finger guard, blade ejector and palm rest for brush technique users improve safety and comfort while sectioning.
When you need the precision and speed of manual sectioning with the efficiency benefits of a semi-automated setup, the HistoCore MULTICUT saves the day. The new generation of microtomes from Leica Biosystems is built upon our 145+ year heritage of market-leading microtome design. Combining the speed of a manual microtome with the precision of motorized specimen feeding, MULTICUT helps you get consistent, reproducible sections.
We are happy to provide you whichever service you require for your histology needs, whether its just cutting and staining or embedding or you need the entire histology service from tissue processing to slide staining. The first step is to contact Oliver Jones and start a discussion about what he can do for you.
FAQS
- FIXED tissue samples need to be brought to QCPU in 10% formalin (4% neutral buffered formalin) at a 1:20 volume*
- FRESH tissue samples for frozen sectioning need to simply be kept moist in a saline solution
- Please make sure prior to dropping off your samples that they are CLEARLY labelled
*Tissue left in formalin too long can lead to downstream background issues (IHC and IF), it is always best to fix and process as soon as possible.
We are happy to provide you whichever service you require for your histology needs, whether its just cutting and staining or embedding or you need the entire histology service from tissue processing to slide staining. The first step is to contact Oliver Jones and start a discussion about what he can do for you.
FAQS
- FIXED tissue samples need to be brought to QCPU in 10% formalin (4% neutral buffered formalin) at a 1:20 volume*
- FRESH tissue samples for frozen sectioning need to simply be kept moist in a saline solution
- Please make sure prior to dropping off your samples that they are CLEARLY labelled
*Tissue left in formalin too long can lead to downstream background issues (IHC and IF), it is always best to fix and process as soon as possible.