Biological Stain Commission
The Biological Stain Commission is an organization certifying scientific stains. The BSC is a 93-year-old organization well known to many thousands of scientists, worldwide but especially in N America, who buy certified dyes for staining of microscopic preparations or for making up selective culture media for bacteria. Manufacturers and other vendors submit samples from their batches of dyes to the BSC's independent laboratory in Rochester NY. The BSC's certification label on a bottle of dye indicates that the contents are from a batch that passed the tests for chemical purity and for efficacy as a biological stain. These tests are published (Penney et al. 2002a). Changes to tests and additions to the list of stains eligible for certification are published from time to time in Biotechnic & Histochemistry and are summarized on the Commission's web site.[1]
The BSC is a non-profit organization, incorporated in the State of New York, for the purpose of ensuring a supply of high quality stains (mostly dyes) for use in biological and medical laboratories. Its origins date from 1922, when vendors of biological stains in the USA had exhausted their stocks of pre-war dyes imported from Germany. American dye manufacturers were unable to produce products that were consistently reliable in histological microtechnique and bacteriology (Conn 1980–1981; Penney 2000).
The Commission's testing laboratory was initially at the Agriculture Experimental Station in Geneva, NY, directed by Dr Harold Joel Conn.[2] Since 1947 the laboratory has been located at the University of Rochester Medical College, Rochester, NY. Currently 57 individual dyes and about 5 mixtures of different dyes are certified by the BSC. The assays and other tests used in the Commission's laboratory are all published, making the required standards known to both vendors and users of biological stains (Penney et al. 2002a,b).[3] The Commission's web site includes instructions for submitting samples of stains for testing and certification.[4]
Since 1925 the BSC has published a scientific journal, named Stain Technology until 1991, when the name was changed to Biotechnic & Histochemistry.[5]
The annual meetings of the BSC are held at the end of the first week in June, in cities easily accessible by air from major centers in North America and Europe. These meetings include scientific sessions with presentations by invited speakers in such disciplines as cancer biology, neuroscience, pathology and plant sciences. There are also informal presentations and exchanges of information among academic biologists, medical scientists, pathologists, and representatives of companies that manufacture and sell biological stains.[6]
References
Conn HJ (1980–1981) The history of the Stain Commission. In 5 parts: Stain Technology 55: 269–279, 327–352; 56: 1–17, 59–66, 135–142.
Penney DP (2000) A brief history of the Biological Stain Commission: its founders, its mission and the first 75 years. Biotechnic & Histochemistry 75(4): 154–166.
Penney DP, Powers JM, Frank M, Willis C, Churukian C (2002a) Analysis and testing of biological stains – the Biological Stain Commission procedures. Biotechnic & Histochemistry 77: 237–275.
Penney DP, Powers JM, Willis C, Frank M, Churukian C (2002b) Methods for testing biological stains. Ch. 28 in Horobin RW, Kiernan JA (eds): Conn's Biological Stains, 10th ed. Oxford, UK: BIOS, pp. 417–425. ISBN 1-85996-099-5.
References
- ↑ http://biologicalstaincommission.org/WhatsNew.html. Retrieved 2014-05-13.
- ↑ http://www.twu.edu/dsc/connI.htm | Deaf Scientists Corner
- ↑ http://biologicalstaincommission.org/NewsDyes.html. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
- ↑ http://biologicalstaincommission.org/For%20Vendors/
- ↑ Biotechnic & Histochemistry, Informa Healthcare
- ↑ Conferences. Biologicalstaincommission.org. Retrieved on 2011-10-29.