Modern methods of mineralized tissue preparation for light and scanning electron microscopy will be covered in this 5-day course (June 7-11, 2010). The course is designed for research scientists, graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and histology technicians who use, or plan to apply, modern morphological techniques to study mineralized tissues.

Classes will meet from 8:30-12:00, 1:00–6:00 with lecture and demonstrations usually in the morning and laboratory sessions in the afternoon. During lunch, Baylor College of Dentistry faculty will present their research, and participants will have the opportunity to share their research projects. Attendees can send specimens in advance to facilitate working on their own materials during the course.

Presented By:

Dr. Rena D’ Souza, DDS, PhD

Dr. Paul Dechow, PhD

Dr. Jerry Feng, MD, PhD

Dr. Lynne Opperman, PhD

Dr. Chunlin Qin, DDS, PhD

Dr. Robert Spears, PhD

Date: Monday - Friday, June 7-11, 2010
Time: 8:00 am - 8:30 am - Registration
          8:30 am - 6:00 pm - Presentation
Location: Baylor College of Dentistry
Credit: 45 lecture/participation hours
Course Fee: $1,500.00 for each participant

AGD Codes: 010 Basic Science; 151 Research Methodology and Biostatistics

Lunch and snacks provided, and Thursday night dinner

Course Topics and Objectives

Undecalcified Tissues:

• Proper tissue fixation
• Usable specimen sizes
• Titanium implants in specimens
• Maintaining specimen orientation
• Making and handling methyl methacrylate (embedding media)
• Cutting tissues
• Use and maintenance of Isomet saw and accessories
• Grinding, polishing and gluing sections on microscope slides
• Special stains (Stevenel’s Blue and Van Geison picro-fuchsin)
• Fluorescent analysis of mineralized tissues

Tissue Analysis Techniques:

• Morphometrical analysis (MetaMorph, Elements and BioQuant)
• Measuring bone and tooth growth

Decalcified Tissues:

• Microwave decalcification using the Pella Bio-Wave
• Immunohistochemistry