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Rapid microdissection of tissue sections via laser ablation
  1. Robin JN Coope1,
  2. Stephen Pleasance1,
  3. Pawan Pandoh1,
  4. Colin Schlosser1,
  5. Richard D Corbett1,
  6. Marco A Marra1,2,3
  1. 1 Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  2. 2 Medical Genetics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  3. 3 Michael Smith Laboratories, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
  1. Correspondence to Dr Robin JN Coope, Canada's Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre, Vancouver, BC V5Z 4S6, Canada; rcoope{at}bcgsc.ca

Abstract

We demonstrate a method for tissue microdissection using scanning laser ablation that is approximately two orders of magnitude faster than conventional laser capture microdissection. Our novel approach uses scanning laser optics and a slide coating under the tissue that can be excited by the laser to selectively eject regions of tissue for further processing. Tissue was dissected at 0.117 s/mm2 without reduction in yield, sequencing insert size or base quality compared with undissected tissue. From eight cases, 58–416 mm2 of tissue was obtained from one to four slides in 7–48 seconds total dissection time per case. These samples underwent exome sequencing and we found the variant allelic fraction increased in regions enriched for tumour as expected. This suggests that our ablation technique may be useful as a tool in both clinical and research labs.

  • Pathology, Molecular
  • MOLECULAR BIOLOGY
  • ONCOGENES

https://doi.org/10.1136/jcp-2023-209361

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    Footnotes

    • Handling editor Yoh Zen.

    • Contributors RJNC coinvented the laser ablation technology with CS and led the work in this manuscript as well as writing the manuscript. SP performed the dissections and developed many details of the slide image to annotation to dissection software pipeline. PP did the lab work from dissected material to submission for library construction, and developed details of the oil-based collection procedure with SP. CS coinvented the technology, designed and built dissection apparatus and laid out the initial software workflow. MAM led the lab, oversaw this work and leads the projects that funded it including those that contributed samples.

    • Funding This work was supported by the Terry Fox Comprehensive Cancer Care Network (TF4CN) Program, Genome BC and Genome Canada (Project 262SEQ), and the Terry Fox Research Institute Marathon of Hope Cancer Centre Network. MAM acknowledges support from the BC Cancer Foundation and the Canada Research Chairs Program.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.