Question 1

How to place an order?

Accepted Answer

Please choose from the following methods:
 
Online   (most secure): please browse our catalog and add products to your basket.
 
Email:    please email your PO or use our order form to sales@quickarrays.com.
 
Phone:   please call one of our customer representative at 415-863-2380.
 
Fax:        please fax your PO or use our order form to 510-225-1084.

Question 2

What information do you require for my order?

Accepted Answer

To process your order we require the following:
Purchase Order Number
Catalog name of the item(s) you require
Quantity of the item (s) you require
Shipping and billing address
Ship to contact name
Email / phone / fax information
Credit card information

Question 3

How will I know if my order has been received by Quickarrays?

Accepted Answer

Our customer service representative will confirm receipt of all orders by email or by fax. You will be notified
again once your order has shipped.  If a purchasing representative is placing your order for you then please
ask them to provide your name and email address, to ensure that the order confirmation and all communication
relating to your order is sent directly to you.

Question 4

What payment methods do you accept?

Accepted Answer

We accept credit card, check, wire transfer, and ACH as methods of payment. 
For further details please email us at sales@quickarrays.com.

Question 5

Where can I find the product cost?

Accepted Answer

Prices are listed with each product’s data information.  Please contact us if a price is not listed.

Question 6

Is the product available?

Accepted Answer

You can check availability by viewing the status for each product’s data information.

Question 7

Shipping information

Accepted Answer

We ship via FedEx Standard overnight for domestic orders and FedEx international priority for international orders. For 
ordering outside of the United States, please choose your country from our distributor page to order.  If a distributor is not 
available, please order from us directly.  If an order is needed to ship from our tissue bank in China, it will be shipped via EMS.

Question 8

When do you ship?

Accepted Answer

Normally, all in-stock orders are processed and shipped within 24-48 hours upon receipt of your PO unless otherwise stated.

Question 9

Does the transit time affect the product?

Accepted Answer

If the product is shipped at ambient temperature, it is known to be stable for the duration of shipping
and normal handling.  However, storage in the refrigerator is often recommended for long-term
stability of a product.  Upon receipt of your product, we recommend storage in the refrigerator at 4°C.  
If you have any specific shipping requirements, please contact customer service.

Question 10

Return and refund policy

Accepted Answer

To return mistaken, unsatisfactory or damaged products please email or call our customer service within 72 hours after receiving the shipment to obtain a return authorization. Before returning the products please store them in the fridge at 4°C in the original packaging. Please do not attempt to return the item without authorization. Returns due to order cancellation may be charged for a 20% re-stocking fee plus any shipping, handling and packaging costs. All items must be returned in the original package within 15 days from the date of delivery. The above return policies are not suitable for customized or bulk products. At our discretion, we may issue a product credit or refund for the product value and shipping charges. No product credit shall be available from us if a past due balance is outstanding on your account.

Question 11

Bulk order request

Accepted Answer

We do provide bulk orders.  Please contact our sales team to discuss your order requirements.

Question 12

How do I contact the Customer Service / Sales team?

Accepted Answer

You can contact the Customer Service teams as follows:
Email: sales@quickarrays.com
Fax: 510-225-1084
Phone: 415-863-2380

Question 13

Can I cancel my order?

Accepted Answer

Orders can be cancelled at no charge if the notification is given before the shipment. Cancellations after the shipment may be subject to a 20% return and re-stocking fee plus shipping costs.

Question 14

Do you guarantee my IHC, ISH or FISH experimental results if I use your products?"

Accepted Answer

The successful results of IHC, ISH or FISH experiments depend on various factors. As a result, we cannot guarantee that the products that you have ordered from us will produce the results that you have expected. Customers may claim that they have performed the experiments with verified SOPs or proper controls. It is not possible for us to verify these claims. We encourage customers to contact us for any technical problem that you may have encountered and our experts may be able to help you out.

Question 15

Term and conditions

Accepted Answer

Quickarrays, Inc. products are intended for research use only and are not to be used for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes. Quickarrays Inc. products shall not be resold, modified for resale, or used to manufacture commercial products without the prior written consent from Quickarrays, Inc. For further information, please contact Quickarrays, Inc. at sales@quickarrays.com.

Question 16

Warranty and liability

Accepted Answer

Quickarrays, Inc. products are warranted to meet the appropriate specifications described in the datasheet. If you identify any non-conforming product, please notify us within 30 days of receipt of the product. Our specialist will contact you for details and evidence (normally images) of the claims to determine whether the problem is protocol-related or product related.
For protocol-related problems, our experts will give you independent professional advice.
For product-related problems, a replacement will be offered.
If you do not provide details or evidence required by our specialists for your claims, we will unfortunately be unable to issue a replacement. This offer is only valid for products purchased directly from Quickarrays and its authorized distributors.
Quickarrays, Inc. disclaims any and all express and implied or statutory warranties, including but not limited to the implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement of any third party intellectual property rights except for the express warranties contained herein. Quickarrays, Inc.’s liability to any user of Quickarrays, Inc. products for damages of any kind, if it is at no fault of the user, will be limited to replacement of the product(s) only, and in no event shall the liability of Quickarrays, Inc. exceed the actual amount paid for the product(s). Quickarrays, Inc. shall not be liable for any indirect, special, incidental or consequential damages. Quickarrays, Inc. disclaims any and all responsibility for any injury or damage which may be caused by the fault of the user or the buyer in accordance with the terms and conditions herein.

Question 17

What is tissue array (TMA)?

Accepted Answer

Tissue array or tissue microarray (TMA) is an innovation developed in late 90’s in the field of pathology. A TMA is commonly referred to a tissue section cut from a single paraffin or frozen recipient block that contains up to one thousand small representative tissue samples cored and re-assembled from different donor tissue blocks by using a manual or automated arrayer. TMA technology allows high throughput analysis of RNA, DNA or protein molecules in multiple tissue specimens at the same time, which is extremely useful in biomarker research and drug target validation.

Question 18

How do you design your TMA products?

Accepted Answer

Following FDA guidelines we design TMA of normal tissue panels for tissue cross-reactivity (TCR) study of therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies.  For oncological studies, we have  tumor progression TMAs (normally in 96 core format) containing cases of different  development phases, grades and stages such as normal to malignant, low grade to high grade,  paired normal vs  tumor or primary vs metastasis of the same patients (in 24, 48 and some 126 core formats). For large scale profiling of specific tumors, we have appropriate TMAs with over 150 cores , most of  which have multiple sets with non-overlapping cases.  For more technical information, please Click “here”.

Question 19

How to understand the names and formats of your TMA products?

Accepted Answer

Our  TMAs have 1.1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm and 4.5mm core size. The section sizes of our TMAs are designed for easy handling during staining and analysis processes. The  first three letters of a TMA name is, in animal, referred to a species, in human, referred to system or anatomic site plus disease. The numbers following the letter indicate core number and set number.  For example: “AMS541” indicates animal mouse with 54 cores and set 1.  “BRC15010” indicates breast cancer  with 150 cores and  set 10.  “MNO1021” indicates multi-normal organs with 102 cores and set 1. Click “here” for more information.

Question 20

What clinicopathological information do you provide for the cases used in your TMA?

Accepted Answer

All human TMAs contain sex, age, anatomic site and pathology diagnosis. Tumor TMAs also contain  grade and TNM stage. Only a few TMAs have treatment and follow-up data.

Question 21

Do you use adhesive tape for transferring tissue sections on your tissue microarray (gene-chip)?

Accepted Answer

No, we do not use this technology, since it can cause damage to tissue sections. We have our own special technical set-up and skills for cutting TMA sections.

Question 22

What do you mean by “fresh cut”?

Accepted Answer

To ensure the freshness and quality, we cut our TMA sections only upon receiving orders, which we refer to as “fresh-cut”.

Question 23

What are the advantages of fresh-cut vs stocked tissue sections?

Accepted Answer

Stocked tissue sections may be used for detection of most of the molecules. However, it is well documented that protein molecules can loss their detectability over storage times. This is particularly true for detection of some functional molecules, such as phosphorylated proteins, which requires fresh-cut tissue sections. It is neither easy nor economic to provide fresh cut TMA tissue sections due to the complicated TMA section cutting procedures and significant TMA tissues loss as a result of trimming for each cutting process. To ensure the maximum quality of our product, we provide this important benefit to our customers.

Question 24

Do you bake your TMA or single tissue sections before shipment?

Accepted Answer

We routinely dry our tissue sections at 47C for 3 to 8 hours in an oven. It is important to bake the slides at 60C for one hour before IHC or ISH procedures. With instruction from our customers, we can also bake the slides accordingly before shipment.

Question 25

Do you cover your TMA or single tissue sections with melt paraffin?

Accepted Answer

For fresh-cut sections, it is not necessary to cover them with melt paraffin. To cover the sections with paraffin, it is necessary to bake the slides at a high temperature, and it is also important to bake the slide again before use in high temperature for extended time to melt down the covering paraffin. Multiple high temperatures baking may reduce the antigeniety of the tissue samples on the slides.

Question 26

Do you vacuum-seal your TMA slides before shipment?

Accepted Answer

No, we do not feel it is necessary to vacuum sealed the package of our fresh-cut sections. However, if it is requested by customers, we can do it.

Question 27

What are the common problems of the TMA products in the market and your solutions to these problems?

Accepted Answer

The followings are some common problems/limitations of TMA/single tissue sections and our solutions:
Heterogeneity - protein expressions in tumor tissues can be very heterogeneous. A single tissue core may not be representative.
Quickarrays solutions – We have TMAs with different core sizes ranging from 1mm to 2.5mm. For TMAs with small cores we make TMAs with duplicated or even triplicate cores, which greatly ensure a good representation of protein expression levels across the cases.
Lack of homogeneous tissue quality – It is very common for TMA vendors to obtain their tissue samples from different sources with different sample storage, fixation and processing conditions. These tissue samples may produce heterogenous results in IHC/ISH detection tests under the same experiment conditions.
Quickarrays solutions – We provide our collaborative hospitals with the standard 10% NBF made in our facility for tissue fixation, and all the fixed tissue samples are processed into paraffin-embedded blocks in our dedicated tissue bank with the same SOPs.
Limited supply of the same cases – The TMA or single case products of most vendors may be limited to one block. As a result, they may discontinue their products as soon as the block is run out. It is difficult or impossible for customers who want to come back to the same cases at a late stage of a study or multiple studies.
Quickarrays solutions - Because we obtain large fresh tissue samples and process them in our tissue bank, we can make as many blocks as possible for each case. Except for a few TMAs made from small biopsy samples, all of our TMA products have never been discontinued. Some customers can correlate their results obtained 10 years ago with those obtained in their recent studies on the same TMAs or cases. In one study, we provided >10,000 slides for one TMA, ensuring the number 1 slide has the same quality as that of the last slide.
Limited case numbers – Because lack of reliable tissue sample sources, it is not easy for other vendors to organize multiple cases for a large scale study effectively.
Quickarrays solutions – We have been collecting tissues from our collaborative hospitals for more than 10 years. Our tissue bank is one of largest private ones, if it is not the largest privately owned tissue bank. In the past few years, we have been able to provide over 1000 single cases of one tumor type for each of large scale studies from some well known pharmaceutical/diagnostic companies.
Overlapping cases – Many vendors distribute TMA or single tissue sections from the same suppliers. Inevitably, they are selling the products made from the same cases that may under different product names.
Quickarrays solutions – Quickarrays only supplies TMAs or single tissue sections from our own collection. For each of the common tumors, we have multiple sets of TMAs with non-overlapping cases, ensuring genuine individual case numbers for a study.

Question 28

How should I choose your TMA products?

Accepted Answer

Tissue arrays are generally expensive reagents. We would like recommend the followings:
If you have not done IHC or ISH before, it is a good idea to practice the staining on some cheap single tissue sections of the organ that is known to express the marker of your interest or some cheap small TMA, such as our universal TMA, UNC241;
Use cheap single tissue sections and TMAs, such as UNC241 to optimize your antibody first. Once you have the working conditions for your antibody, you then test the antibody on the expensive TMAs.
For antibody tissue cross-reactivity test, you can use MNO341, MNO381 or MNO661 for initial tests. You can then move to MNO961 or MNO1021 if you want to follow FDA guidelines.
For random tumor issue profiling, you can start with MTU481, MTU391 or MTU951. If you identify special patterns of staining in certain types of tumors, you can screen your antibody on TMAs for these tumor types.
If you want to study common diseases in an organ or system, you can screen your antibody on an organ or system common disease TMA, such as DID381 is for common diseases of the digestive system, BRD961 is for common diseases of the breast.
If you want to study expression patterns of a biomarker during development and progression of a tumor type, you can try our 96 core series TMAs for the appropriate organ or system.
If you want to compare expression levels of a biomarker in a normal tissue type and its tumor counterpart from the same individual patients, you can try our normal vs. tumor pairing TMAs for the appropriate organ or system.
If you want to compare expression levels of a biomarker in a primary tumor type and its metastasis from the same individual patients, you can try our primary tumor vs metastasis TMAs for the appropriate organ or system.
If you want to conduct large scale screening of a tumor type, please try our TMAs with 150 or more cores;
If you cannot decide which TMAs you would like to test on, please contact us by email or phone. Our scientist or pathologist will be very happy to help you with your TMA selection.

Question 29

What is the general core missing rate for your TMA products?

Accepted Answer

The current industrial high standard for TMA core missing rate is 10%, i.e. 90% of the cores on an array slide should contain recognizable amounts of the target cells. We strictly stick to this standard. If any TMA product has a core missing rate over 10% due to tissue exhaustion, we will inform our customers and give them appropriate discount, or ask them to wait for a new block if there is no back-up block on site.  In fact, for most our TMA sections, the missing core rate is below 5%. This together with “fresh-cut” nature makes our TMA products one of the best in the market.

Question 30

How do you design and validate you IHC control TMAs?

Accepted Answer

We are aiming to make control TMAs for all the common antibodies that are used for IHC. We initially screen relevant tissue samples (hundreds of cases) with each of ~300 IHC antibodies. We then group the cases into negative, weak, moderate and strong categories for each antibody. Except for few, all the IHC control TMA contains 4 pairs (duplicates) of cores representing negative, week, moderate and strong expressers for appropriate molecules.

Question 31

Do you follow any guidelines in tissue acquisition?

Accepted Answer

All the human tissue samples in our tissue bank are collected under strict IRB/HIPPA approved guidelines/protocols with informed consents from the donors or their relatives and the rights to hold research uses for any purpose or further commercialized uses are waived. We try our best to protect the confidentiality of personal information, and make sure that no names and any other identity information are revealed during the process of development of tissue arrays, nor to end users who receive our tissue products. For animal tissue acquisition we also follow IACUC protocols.

Question 32

How do you fix the tissue samples that you acquire?

Accepted Answer

We provide our collaborative hospitals with standard 10% NBF. Large tissue samples are sliced in 1cm intervals and put in specimen containers filled with 10% NBF within 30 minutes of surgical removal. After the hospital pathology departments take sufficient tissue samples for their diagnosis, all the samples (soaked in 10% NBF in containers) are immediately transported to our tissue bank where our staff make sure that the samples are sufficiently fixed (fixed for 24 hours or for extended time if the samples show sign of insufficient fixation), and conduct grossing and processing.

Question 33

How long do you keep tissues unfixed after surgical removal?

Accepted Answer

Within 30 minutes of surgical removal.

Question 34

How long do you wait for autopsy tissue samples to be fixed after patient death?

Accepted Answer

We do not use autopsy tissue samples for our TMA or single tissue sections except for organs that cannot be obtained from surgery, such as brain, heart. The autopsy tissue samples in our tissue bank are collected within 8 hours of death.

Question 35

How do you process your tissue samples?

Accepted Answer

We have two Leica TP1020 tissue processors in our tissue bank. One is for large samples; the other is for small biopsy or special tissue samples. All the tissue samples in our tissue bank are processed using SOPs commonly use in Pathology Departments throughout Europe and USA.

Question 36

How do you ensure that the clinico-pathological data of your cases are correct?

Accepted Answer

The original diagnosis of each case is provided by the original hospital. After we process the tissue samples into paraffin blocks, we cut sections and stained with H&E for each block. Our in-house pathologists review the histology of each block and record the histology together with the original pathology findings in our database. Our well trained pathologists are responsible for selecting and retrieving cases for our TMA manufacturing. After each TMA product is made, section for each TMA is H&E stained and histology of each core or the TMA is further reviewed by our pathologists. During the section cutting, every 10th section of the tissue array is reviewed again by our pathologists to make sure the correct histology of each core and appropriate core retaining rate of the TMA in use.

Question 37

How do you ship your tissue array and single tissue sections/slides?

Accepted Answer

Our TMA and single tissue sections are packed in appropriate slide mailers and wrapped safely in foam packs and shipped in a suitable FedEx box. We normally ship our products via FedEx overnight express.

Question 38

How long can a tissue array or single tissue section be stored?

Accepted Answer

There are quite a few studies on stability of paraffin-embedded tissue sections during storage. It is recommended that paraffin tissue sections should be stable at room temperature for 3 to 6 weeks and at 4C for one year. Our experience has shown that for detection of most protein molecules paraffin tissue sections should be stable for at least for six months if they are well-wrapped and stored at 4C. For some detection of functional molecules, such as phosphorylated protein, it is important to use sections cut within a few weeks.

Question 39

Do you have any favorable IHC/ISH/FISH protocols for your tissue array sections?

Accepted Answer

IHC/ISH/FISH protocols for TMA sections should be the same as those for whole single tissue sections. For antigen retrieval, it is better to use a mild method and avoid direct boiling and use of high pH solution. Please click supports page and download our IHC/ISH/FISH protocols.

Question 40

Are there any publications using your TMAs?

Accepted Answer

Yes, there should be many publications in the literature. You can search Quickarrays online or in PUBMED.

Question 41

Do you make custom TMAs?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can contact our Customer Service in the USA: 1-888-231-3180 (toll free) or 1-415-863-2380, or email sales@quickarrays.com for more details

Question 42

Do you guarantee the results of my IHC/ISH/FISH tests if I use your TMA or single tissue sections?

Accepted Answer

Many factors determine the outcomes of IHC/ISH/FISH experiments. It is not possible for anyone to guarantee your experiment results when multiple reagents and suppliers are involved. However, you can call us and our experts will be happy to share with you their experiences in using TMA sections.

Question 43

Are your formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded TMA and single tissue sections bio-hazards?"

Accepted Answer

After formalin fixation, chemical/heat dehydration and paraffin-embedding, our paraffin-embedded tissue blocks, sections and tissue arrays are considered non-hazardous, although the chemical, physical, bio-hazardous and toxicological properties of these products have not been thoroughly investigated.

Question 44

What are the advantages of your TMA products over those of other vendors?

Accepted Answer

The main advantages are:
Freshly cut TMA sections- cut upon receiving your order;
Optimal fixation: Collect and fix tissue samples from fresh in standard 10% NBF that we provide to our collaborative hospitals following strict guidelines;
Uniform quality for each tissue core in any TMA - Our tissue samples are fixed, processed, embedded and stored using the same SOPs. They are all from our dedicated tissue bank facility.
Reliable diagnosis - Quickarrays was found by a pathologist. It is also managed by pathologists. We also have an expert board consisting of many experienced pathologists.
Lasting supply of the same TMA, because our comprehensive tissue bank
Provide single tissue sections of selected cores in most of our TMA products.

Question 45

What services do you provide?

Accepted Answer

As listed on our website, we provide a wide range of services from tissue processing, custom array construction, various staining, image analysis and various contracted protracts. Please contact our Customer Service in the USA: 1-888-231-3180 (toll free) or 1-415-863-2380, or email sales@quickarrays.com for more details

Question 46

How do you manage your service project?

Accepted Answer

After receiving your order and required materials, we will assign a project number and a manager for your project. He or she will be responsible for coordination, monitoring up the progress and organizing all the data for the project. Please contact our Customer Service in the USA: 1-888-231-3180 (toll free) or
1-415-863-2380, or email sales@quickarrays.com for more details

Question 47

What is the turn-around time for your services?

Accepted Answer

It depends on the scale of a project. It may take one week to few months to get the project done. Please contact our Customer Service in the USA: 1-888-231-3180 (toll free) or 1-415-863-2380, or email sales@quickarrays.com for more details

QUICKARRAYS

​

Technical questions

How to place an order?

What information do you require for my order?

How will I know if my order has been received by Quickarrays?

What payment methods do you accept?

Where can I find the product cost?

Is the product available?

Shipping information

When do you ship?

Does the transit time affect the product?

Return and refund policy

Bulk order request

How do I contact the Customer Service / Sales team?

Can I cancel my order?

Do you guarantee my IHC, ISH or FISH experimental results if I use your products?"

Term and conditions

Warranty and liability

What is tissue array (TMA)?

How do you design your TMA products?

How to understand the names and formats of your TMA products?

What clinicopathological information do you provide for the cases used in your TMA?

Do you use adhesive tape for transferring tissue sections on your tissue microarray (gene-chip)?

What do you mean by “fresh cut”?

What are the advantages of fresh-cut vs stocked tissue sections?

Do you bake your TMA or single tissue sections before shipment?

Do you cover your TMA or single tissue sections with melt paraffin?

Do you vacuum-seal your TMA slides before shipment?

What are the common problems of the TMA products in the market and your solutions to these problems?

How should I choose your TMA products?

What is the general core missing rate for your TMA products?

How do you design and validate you IHC control TMAs?

Do you follow any guidelines in tissue acquisition?

How do you fix the tissue samples that you acquire?

How long do you keep tissues unfixed after surgical removal?

How long do you wait for autopsy tissue samples to be fixed after patient death?

How do you process your tissue samples?

How do you ensure that the clinico-pathological data of your cases are correct?

How do you ship your tissue array and single tissue sections/slides?

How long can a tissue array or single tissue section be stored?

Do you have any favorable IHC/ISH/FISH protocols for your tissue array sections?

Are there any publications using your TMAs?

Do you make custom TMAs?

Do you guarantee the results of my IHC/ISH/FISH tests if I use your TMA or single tissue sections?

Are your formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded TMA and single tissue sections bio-hazards?"

What are the advantages of your TMA products over those of other vendors?

What services do you provide?

How do you manage your service project?

What is the turn-around time for your services?

GENERAL INFORMATION

BY LETTER

HOW TO ORDER

NATURE

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ANCILLARIES

CONTROL TMA

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HOW TO ORDER

GENERAL INFORMATION

CONTROL TMA

HOW TO ORDER

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HOW TO ORDER

CONTRACTED SERVICES

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