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Updated: Aug 6, 2026
Manual Construction of a Tissue Microarray using the Tape Method and a Handheld Microarrayer
Published on: June 10, 2022
Simple, inexpensive, and precise paraffin tissue microarrays constructed with a conventional microcompound table and
Ulrich F Vogel1, Burkhard D Bueltmann
1Institute of Pathology, University Clinic, Eberhard-Karls-University, Tuebingen, Germany.
Abstract:
In 1998, paraffin tissue microarrays (PTMAs) as paraffin blocks containing up to 1,000 cylindrical paraffin tissue core biopsy specimens (PTCBs) for high-throughput molecular profiling of tumor specimens were introduced. PTCBs can be constructed using a manual tissue puncher/arrayer (Beecher Instruments, Sun Prairie, WI; cost, at least $7,000). Furthermore, custom-built PTMAs such as the MaxArray are created by companies such as Zymed Laboratories (South San Francisco, CA; PTMA with 96 holes, about $900). In our search for a less expensive alternative, we constructed PTMAs with up to 558 PTCBs by using a drill grinder, a drill stand, and a microcompound table (Proxxon, Niersdorf, Germany; cost, <$300).
