This video explains how to use the Arraymold to make custom TMAs. This video is a little over 2 minutes. This is a short but important video if you are interested in using TMAs but need a special arrangement for your tissue samples.
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Video Narration:
Welcome to another training video from Arraymold. Today we are going to explain how to create a custom TMA using the 1mm Arraymold. This is the custom TMA templet we will be using for this project.
First what I like to do is mark out the layout on a blank TMA block. A sharpie works really well for this purpose. Now I can see exactly where I will be inserting the tissue cores.
Don’t forget to mark your control holes if you are using them.
Now we can begin to fill our TMA block. As you can see the markings make it really easy to see the exact location you will be inserting your tissues cores.
I would highly recommend a magnifying lamp if punching and inserting cores are a bit hard on the eyes.
I often take breaks in the middle of constructing a TMA to give my eyes a rest and focus on farther away objects.
Now for the control spots and I am finished with the tissue part of the TMA.
There are a lot of empty holes and they too need to be filled. I have created a blank paraffin block with Paraplast X-TRA paraffin for this purpose.
Filling the blank spots with paraffin may feel tedious but it is vary important for the structural integrity of your TMA block. This is easy to do and good practice for getting your punch technique down.
When constructing your TMA, if you want to do the blank paraffin cores first before you tackle your tissue cores you can since you already marked the core holes with a sharpie marker. Doing the blank paraffin cores first would be excellent practicing before you do the real work of inserting tissue cores.
Once you have filled all the holes with tissue and paraffin, you will need to set the punches. Setting a TMA block is covered in several of our other videos including our Up and Running TMA Video. Thanks for watching.