Pilot Study
Reduce time, effort, and costs with MBF Labs.
Send us your slides, and we’ll complete a comprehensive pilot
study for you; providing an objective analysis of your tissue thickness
and staining penetration, outlining sampling parameters and counting
procedures, and providing you with the knowledge and confidence you
need to collect the remainder of the data yourself. Our staff includes
experienced Ph.D. research scientists who are experts with stereology
methodology, our software, and who have demonstrated experience in
neuroscience research applications.
Using a technique created at MBF Labs and adapted from Slomianka
and West (2005), we will calculate an adequate sampling fraction based
on the section thickness, section interval, and the frequency of the
objects to be counted within your tissue. We can also empirically
determine the appropriate guard zones for your tissue. This data will
be provided to you with the return of your slides in a report detailing
how the parameters were chosen. Additional support as you begin your
work is also available; we can walk you through your first counting
procedure or even audit your work to ensure that data collection is
proceeding as expected. Confidence in the technique will translate to
confidence in the results.
A properly designed stereology pilot study will reduce time, effort,
and costs for the overall experiment by optimizing the sampling
parameters to identify how many sections are needed (and therefore
generated and stained) to obtain a result with adequate precision.
Of course, if you want to outsource your complete study, we would be
glad to help you with that as well.
Please
click
here to download and complete the MBF Labs Work Proposal Questionnaire.
When completed, save the document and
email your attachment to the MBF Labs staff.