With Retriever you can

• Run antigen unmasking in up to 6 different buffers in one cycle. This is very important when you are trying to find the most appropriate buffer for epitope recovery or need to process the same tissue in different buffers for different antibodies.

• Use a minimal quantity of processing buffer (therefore always using a fresh one without high cost, without not jeopardising the identical processing, and thus identically staining on tissues from different cycles).

• Recover the epitope of interest for a strong staining while preserving the tissue and cell morphology (quite important in diagnostic pathology).

• Get identical results every time. Even in experiments that are performed months apart. This is especially critical for retrospective research that involves IHC on large collections of tissues that may not all be available at once. Using Retriever gives you the confidence that all stainings will be performed on identically retrieved sections.

• Just do it. Load the sections, pour the buffer, close the lid and push the button. No training, not "tricks of the trade", no waiting when the diagnostic pathology team has time to do it for you.

• Use either standard Citrate of EDTA buffers, or our buffers (new Universal set of buffers arrives this fall).

• Don't worry that the machine will stop working. This only happened twice in the whole history of Retriever, and both times it was the result of improper use. In any case, you have a full year of replacement guarantee.

How does the Retriever work?

It looks like a pressure cooker, and basically it is a pressure cooker. People sometimes ask us what temperatures and pressures are used (to replicate it with some other pressure cooker). However, this information will not be helpful, because the key factor is not what temperature and pressure it reaches, but how. The heating profile is dictated by a microchip controlling the process, and the proper heating profile is tested during production for every individual unit of the Retriever. Sensors control the heating profile for the temperature and pressure to be reached at a certain pace and over certain time. We did a lot of tests to find this optimal setting. When the required temperature is reached, it will be kept for several minutes. After that the slides will be cooling for over 2 hours. Specially designed thermal walls of the unit control the speed of cooling of the inner chamber and slides. This is an important stage of the process as well, it gives proteins a chance to re-fold back some domains after the processing. 

Who would benefit from using our Retriever?

• Investigative Pathology, where the high quality of staining (a picture may be published!) is required.

• Any lab that is short on technical personnel (any student or post-doc can process slides for the staining without using much time).

• Small routine pathology labs, where a limited number of slides should be processed daily.

• Anyone who uses highly valuable samples, such as tissue arrays or unique tissue samples.

• Simplicity and reliability of the unit ensures the safety of your sample and a high quality antigen unmasking.