Histology Service

Group Leader:
Colin Nixon

Histology performs processing of tissue and cellular material from the wide range of cancer models developed within the Institute. This allows material to be evaluated at a cellular level using an array of specialised histological techniques providing insight into the mechanisms of cancer and tissue structure. The service offers processing for tissue samples fixed in different types of fixative dependent on subsequent/preferred analysis producing a paraffin embedded block. Once received, tissue samples are trimmed, appropriately processed and orientated into paraffin wax blocks to facilitate tissue sectioning and staining/analysis. Tissue samples are processed according to type and necessity using specialised processing cycles. Other material such as agar plugs, cell pellets, drosophila, embryo’s, organotypic assays and spheroids can be processed to produce a paraffin block allowing sectioning and investigation. All paraffin blocks sectioned are stained with haematoxylin and eosin providing general analysis of cell morphology and structure. After initial analysis, more specialised histological stains/techniques can be performed to investigate specific tissue structures.

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Lab Members

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Recent Publications

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Recent Publications

2026

Pardo, L., Moore, M., Deshmukh, R., Powley, I., Waldron, J.A., Kruspig, B., McGarry, L., Dolma, L., Campos, A.V., Wood, C., Leslie, H., Hughes, M., Jeldes, E., Munro, J., Mitchell, L., Officer-Jones, L., Baird, R., Coquelet, H., Jamieson, N.B., Sumpton, D., Strathdee, D., le Quesne, J., Bushell, M., Murphy, D.J., Norman, J.C., 2026. Increased mRNA translation delays tumour initiation and exposes a therapeutic vulnerability in lung cancer. Mol Cancer.

Williams, H.L., Poulain, N., Powley, I., Martinelli, S., Bielik, R., Leslie, H., Nixon, C., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., He, Z., Officer-Jones, L., Ballantyne, F., Pennie, R., Wood, C.S., Lewis, D.Y., Jamieson, N.B., Le Quesne, J., 2026. Spatial Molecular Plasticity Underpins Lethal Morphologies in Lung Adenocarcinoma. Mod Pathol 100960.

2025

Baird, R.L., Mason, D., Rakovic, K., Ballantyne, F., Powley, I.R., Georgakopoulou, A., Hillary, L., Bird, T.G., Officer-Jones, L., Le Quesne, J., 2025. PixlMap: A generalisable pixel classifier for cellular phenotyping in multiplex immunofluorescence images. PLoS One 20(12), e0317865.

Kanellos, G., Giacomelli, C., Raven, A., Vlahov, N., Jin, H., Herviou, P., Malla, S.B., Nasreddin, N., Centeno, P.P., Alexandrou, C., Gilroy, K., Baird, R.L., Pennel, K., Munro, J., Waldron, J.A., Hall, H., Officer-Jones, L., Bryson, S., Strathdee, D., Lilla, S., Zanivan, S., Morrison, V., Nixon, C., Ridgway, R.A., Miller, C., Knight, J.R.P., Campbell, A.D., Dunne, P.D., Le Quesne, J., Edwards, J., Park, P.J., Bushell, M., Sansom, O.J., 2025. Nucleophosmin supports WNT-driven hyperproliferation and tumor initiation. Nat Genet 58, 100–115.

Müller, M., May, S., Hall, H., Kendall, T.J., McGarry, L., Blukacz, L., Nuciforo, S., Georgakopoulou, A., Jamieson, T., Phinichkusolchit, N., Dhayade, S., Suzuki, T., Huguet-Pradell, J., Powley, I.R., Officer-Jones, L., Pennie, R.L., Esteban-Fabró, R., Gris-Oliver, A., Pinyol, R., Skalka, G.L., Leslie, J., Hoare, M., Sprangers, J., Malviya, G., Mackintosh, A., Johnson, E., McCain, M., Halpin, J., Kiourtis, C., Nixon, C., Clark, G., Clark, W., Shaw, R., Hedley, A., Drake, T.M., Tan, E.H., Neilson, M., Murphy, D.J., Lewis, D.Y., Reeves, H.L., Le Quesne, J., Mann, D.A., Carlin, L.M., Blyth, K., Llovet, J.M., Heim, M.H., Sansom, O.J., Miller, C.J., Bird, T.G., 2025. Human-correlated genetic models identify precision therapy for liver cancer. Nature.

Seyedshahi, F., Rakovic, K., Poulain, N., Claudio Quiros, A., Powley, I.R., Richards, C., Uraiby, H., Klebe, S., Moore, D.A., Nakas, A., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., Officer-Jones, L., Ficken, C., Teodosio, A., Ballantyne, F., Murphy, D., Yuan, K., Le Quesne, J., 2025. A histomorphological atlas of resected mesothelioma discovered by self-supervised learning from 3446 whole-slide images. Nat Commun 16(1), 8891.

White, M., Mills, M.L., Millett, L.M., Gilroy, K., Hong, Y., Zeiger, L.B., Simpson, R.J., Corry, S.M., Ligeza, A., Lannagan, T.R.M., Susanti, S., Ridgway, R.A., Yazgili, A.S., Grzesiak, L., Amirkhah, R., Ford, C.A., Vlahov, N., Tovell, H., Officer-Jones, L., Ficken, C., Pennie, R., Najumudeen, A.K., Raven, A., Nasreddin, N., Chauhan, E., Papanastasiou, A.S., Nixon, C., Morrison, V., Jackstadt, R., Graham, J.S., Miller, C.J., Ross, S.J., Barry, S.T., Pavet, V., Wilson, R.H., Le Quesne, J., Dunne, P.D., Tejpar, S., Leedham, S., Campbell, A.D., Sansom, O.J., 2025. MAPK-driven epithelial cell plasticity drives colorectal cancer therapeutic resistance. Nature.

2024

Williams, H.L., Poulain, N., Powley, I., Martinelli, S., Bielik, R., Leslie, H., Nixon, C., Wilson, C.R., Sereno, M., He, Z., Officer-Jones, L., Ballantyne, F., Pennie, R., Wood, C.S., Lewis, D.Y., Jamieson, N.B., Le Quesne, J., 2024. Spatial resolution of transcriptomic plasticity states underpinning lethal morphologies in lung adenocarcinoma. bioRxiv.

Xavier, V., Martinelli, S., Corbyn, R., Pennie, R., Rakovic, K., Powley, I.R., Officer-Jones, L., Ruscica, V., Galloway, A., Carlin, L.M., Cowling, V.H., Le Quesne, J., Martinou, J.C., MacVicar, T., 2024. Mitochondrial double-stranded RNA homeostasis depends on cell-cycle progression. Life Sci Alliance 7.