FY2010 - Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Seed Money Fund—
Measurement Science and Systems Engineering Division
The specimen preparation has been going forward with the acquisition of requisite supplies. Since the
tissue cannot be placed in paraffin, as is customary, a meat cutter such as used in a deli will be obtained to
cut the thin tissue specimens. Several specimens have been made using ethanol, deuterated alcohol, and
formalin. The requisite approvals for bringing and handling these biological materials have been obtained.
Protocols for fresh (not fixed) tissues specimens are being addressed and should be completed soon.
Tissues will be mounted on quartz and aluminum slides. These specimens will be imaged during the next
HFIR cycle that begins in early October.
The boronation of the standard tissue stains, hematoxylin and eosin (H&E), is progressing well. Eosin has
been boronated with a carboranyl group, which will significantly increase the contrast. The chemical
characterization should be completed in a few days, at which time it will be used as a stain to investigate
the visual appearance. When this is completed, the efforts will be focused on boronating hematoxylin,
which is a greater challenge since the molecule will have to be built rather than using substitution
reactions as was done in the case of eosin.
There will be time to perform some of the early experiments at GG-1 at HFIR in October and November.
Time has been requested for January, and it is anticipated that some or all of the time requested will be
rewarded. At this time, the project is on time to get results to present to potential funding sources late next
spring or early next summer.
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