Real lab failures, root causes, and fixes — curated and bilingually annotated by our team.
No staining is observed in immunohistochemistry despite proper protocol execution. Previously validated antibodies or detection kits fail to produce any signal.
No staining observed when targeting nuclear proteins. Antibody cannot access nuclear compartment despite proper antibody concentration and incubation time.
Paraffin-embedded tissue sections show no immunostaining. Residual paraffin creates a physical barrier preventing antibody access to tissue antigens.
No detectable staining despite proper protocol execution. Insufficient antibody-antigen binding due to suboptimal concentration or incubation conditions.
Complete absence of staining with antibody that works in other applications. The antibody may not recognize native protein conformation present in tissue sections.
No signal detected despite proper primary antibody binding. Secondary antibody fails to recognize or bind to the primary antibody, breaking the detection chain.
No staining is detected when targeting membrane proteins in IHC. Signal is absent despite antibody validation, suggesting structural damage to membrane epitopes.
No staining observed in experimental tissue samples. The target protein may not be expressed in the tissue type or developmental stage being examined, or present at undetectable levels.
No staining in formaldehyde-fixed tissues despite validated antibody. Fixation-induced protein crosslinking masks epitopes and prevents antibody recognition.
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