Knowledge Center
Practical guides and technical insights for reproducible brain tissue sectioning, histology, and quantitative imaging — written by the SHANGTONG team for life-science researchers.
Sectioning & Histology
A practical guide for reproducible neuroanatomy, histology and electrophysiology.
How to match the sectioning method to your downstream assay.
Visualising cell bodies and cytoarchitecture with cresyl violet and related dyes.
Revealing complete dendritic trees and spines in individual neurons.
Trade-offs between thick, medium and thin sections across applications.
Fixatives, perfusion and timing for optimal preservation.
How the blade drives section quality, and how to keep it sharp.
Diagnosing and preventing the most frequent staining problems.
Clean, consistent dissection and orientation for reproducible sections.
Immunostaining & Imaging
Reliable protein localisation from good sections to validated controls.
Minimising background and photobleaching for clean fluorescence images.
Converting stained sections into shareable, analysable digital images.
Turning visual information into objective, reproducible numbers.
Rendering tissue transparent for volumetric imaging of intact brains.
Analysis & Quantification
Aligning sections to a reference atlas for region-based analysis.
Unbiased quantitative estimates of cell number and density.
Quantifying dendritic length, branching and spine density.
Electrophysiology
Keeping living tissue healthy for stable recordings.
Instrument Care
Daily, weekly and periodic care for reliable sectioning.
Human Tissue
Ethical, traceable handling that protects tissue quality.
Reproducibility
Standardising the pipeline for results others can repeat.