number 9210786 1991 with one set being histologically stained for morphological detail and coverslipped for light microscopy the other set is mounted on glass slides and left unstained with no coverslips with a microdissection membrane to prevent cross contamination of macromolecules see the molecular machines website at extension homepage php start produkte under the heading u201c micro manipulation u201d for detailed protocols a uv laser of the type described in cole et al cole k a et al nat genet 21 1 suppl 38 41 1999 is used to incise a grid pattern across each tissue section of the uncovered set of alternating serial sections described in 1 above this is done with the use of said uv laser adapted to the application end of a microarray creation robotic apparatus as described in cheung cheung v g et al nat genet 21 1 suppl 15 9 1999 this allows for unattended section incising of a large number of specimens a second adaptation of the robotic apparatus cheung v g et al nat genet 21 1 suppl 15 9 1999 adds a microdissection transfer film holder to the application end of the apparatus this transfer film holder is then used to lift each incised section sample from each grid location on each section and transfer each sample to a uniquely coded isolation tube for lysis and further processing the sample isolation tubes are arranged in spatial arrays where each tube is bar coded.