iCORE Histopathology
A GLP-certified animal pathology laboratory house within A*STAR iCORE has been playing pivotal role in Singapore’s research ecosystems over 15 years. The laboratory provides research facilitation to A*STAR Research Institutes, Universities, Health sectors, Major pharmaceutical companies, and SMEs.
Staffed by highly experienced professionals and supported by robust infrastructures, the laboratory delivers valuable pathological insights that contribute to research projects, grant applications, and scientific publications across diverse disciplines. The laboratory was previously known as Advanced Molecular Pathology Laboratory (AMPL).
Key Services
- Animal Necropsy
- Simple and complex histo-processing (paraffin & Cryo)
- Embedding
- Sectioning
- H&E staining
- Special staining
- Immunohistochemistry (bright field & Immunofluorescence)
- Tissue micro array
- Whole slide Imaging
- Annotation and Image analysis
- Clinical chemistry analysis
- Haematology analysis
- Urine analysis
- Animal Pathology Evaluation for research cases
- Animal Pathology Evaluation for veterinary diagnostics
- Clinical Pathology Evaluation for human tissues
- Toxicity assessment
- GLP training
- Toxicology consultation
Key Applications
Histology/Histopathology/clinical pathology supports for
Preclinical & basic research
- Phenotyping of animal models: characterize organs/tissues in knockout, transgenic, disease models
- Mechanism of disease studies: correlate microscopic changes with biochemistry/haematology
- Developmental biology: embryonic and postnatal tissue differentiation and defects
Drug discovery & development
- Safety pharmacology support: correlation of clinical signs with tissue lesions
- Efficacy assessment: histological evidence of treatment response or healing
- Toxicologic pathology : target organ toxicity, dose-response, Reversibility, MTD etc
- Biomarker validation: IHC, ISH, special stains to link structure and functional alterations
Gene, cell, and advanced therapies
- Tissue distribution studies: cell and gene therapy localization
- On-target/off-target effects: tissue-specific toxicity and inflammation
- Tumorigenicity assessments: cell therapy safety
Infectious disease research
- Pathogen localization by special stain, IHC.
- Host-pathogen interaction: inflammation, tissue damage patterns
- Vaccine studies: reaction at injection site, organ response
Device & biomaterial evaluation
- Implant biocompatibility
- Foreign body response, fibrosis, encapsulation
Methodological support
- Tissue processing, embedding, sectioning, special stains
- Immunohistochemistry & morphometry
- Digital pathology for quantitative image analysis
Key Equipment
- Leica Autostainer XL (Automated slide stainer)
- Leica CV5030 Coverslipper (Automated slide coverslipper)
- Leica CM3050 S Cryostat (Cryostat)
- Sakura Tissue-Tek TEC5 Embedding System (Paraffin embedding system)
- Leica Bond-Max™ (Automated IHC stainer)
- Leica Bond-III™ (Automated IHC stainer)
- Roche Ventana Discovery Ultra System (Automated IHC stainer)
- Leica IPC Cassette Printer (Cassette Printer)
- Leica IPS Slide Printer (Slide Printer)
- Leica RM2265 (Microtome)
- Leica RM2235 (Microtome)
- Leica RM2255 (Microtome)
- Axioscan 7 Histological Slide Scanning System (Whole Slide Scanning System)
- Sakura Tissue-Tek VIP 6 (Tissue Processor)
- Sysmex XN-1000 Automated Haematology Analyser (Haematology Analyser)
- Roche cobas® c 111 Clinical Chemistry Analyser (Clinical Chemistry Analyser)
- Uri-Trak 120 (Strip Analysis) Urine analyser
- MTA-1Beecher Tissue micro array (TMA)
- Olympus/Nikon Microscopes
Accreditations
Lab certification:
- Good Laboratory Practice (GLP)
Board Certifications:
- ACVP (USA)
- DABT (USA)
- ERT (UK)
- RCPath (UK)
Our People
Team Members (from left to right): Maggie See; Atieqa Edora Eadi; Murugan Hemavarshini; Ravisankar Rajarethinam- Platform Lead; Ong Li-jin; Marcus Yong; Poh Suat Fang; Heng Shi Min
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