The Laser Capture Microdissection Service (LCMS) is a joint venture of the RRC and the Department of Pathology's Histology Core Lab facility located in Room 328, College of Medicine West Building, 1819 West Polk Street.

Laser microdissection is a technology to isolate the cells, or group of cells, of interest from histology sections, cell smears and cell cultures in preparation for PCR, RT-PCR and proteomics. The Leica AS LMD instrument allows non-contact collection by gravity directly into nucleic acid or proteomic assays vials.

The LCMS will be operated by members of the Department of Pathology with back up from the staff of the RRC's Confocal Microscopy Facility (CMF). Investigators are encouraged to sign up for training and learn how to operate the instrumentation themselves, however, the LCMS staff is available to carry out experiments for those investigators who only occasionally require microdissection service, or who do not have training in histology. The instrumentation is also available to investigators from outside UIC.

The contact person is Andre K. Balla, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Transdisciplinary Translational Pathology Research (phone: 312-996-3879 / e-mail: aballa@uic.edu).