will be washed between 1 and about 10 times and preferably between about two and about four times a typical volume of organic solvent is about 500 u03bcl for a 10 u03bcm tissue specimen other methods for deparaffinization known to one of skill in the art may also be used in the method of the invention such methods include direct melting banerjee et al 1995 samples are preferably rehydrated after deparaffinization the preferred method for rehydration is step wise washing with aqueous lower alcoholic solutions of decreasing concentration ethanol is a preferred lower alcohol for rehydration other alcohols may also be suitable for use with the invention including methanol isopropanol and other similar alcohols in the c1 c5 range the sample is alternatively vigorously mixed with alcoholic solutions and centrifuged in a preferred embodiment the concentration range of alcohol is decreased stepwise from about 100 to about 70 in water over about three to five incremental steps where the change in solution concentration at each step is usually less than about 10 i e the sequence 100 95 90 80 70 in another embodiment deparaffinization and rehydration are carried out simultaneously using a reagent such as ez dewax biogenex san ramon calif deparaffinized rehydrated samples can be homogenized by any standard mechanical sonic or other suitable technique tissue homogenization is preferably carried out with a mechanical tissue homogenizers according to standard procedures a number of commercially available homogenizers are suitable for use with the invention including ultra turrax homogenizer ika works inc wilmington n c tissumizer tekmar dohrmann cincinnati ohio and polytron brinkmann westbury n y in one embodiment the sample is homogenized in the presence of a chaotropic agent chaotropic agents are.