Amy, It is probably too late to suggest this, but I'd start by not buying such an instrument in the first place. Standardization is nice, but the tech should be smarter than the instrument. Many companies want techs running these instruments to be mindless drones that do little more than transport slides from microtome to stainer and back. Always look for an instrument that allows you maximum flexibility with every aspect of it's use. Other than that you would end up needing to "trick" the instrument into thinking that it is running something else that uses the same staining protocol. Just a shot in the dark, have you tried photocopying an active bar code and taping (gluing) it to the expired one? (Just make sure the assigned protocol matches in terms of retrieval technique and clonality for the detection) I'm sure that would violate the instrument manufacturer's terms of service, but it is clearly not functioning for you if you can't use it.
Let me know how that works out for you, Amos Message: 4 Date: Mon, 13 Oct 2008 07:04:10 -0400 From: "Senn, Amy R" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [Histonet] Expiration dates To: <[email protected]> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Hello all, My supervisor wanted me to ask everyone who's posting about the expiration dates of antibodies: How can you use expired antibodies on a stainer such as a Benchmark-which will not allow you to start the run due to expiration dates on the containers? Thanks!! Amy Senn Camp Hill, PA _______________________________________________ Histonet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.utsouthwestern.edu/mailman/listinfo/histonet
