PerkinElmer, Inc., a global leader focused on improving the health and safety of people and the environment, today announced the launch of its new Opal® Multicolor Immunohistochemistry (IHC) Research Kits. These offerings enable researchers, oncologists and pathologists to understand the mechanics of cancer.

Opal kits are part of PerkinElmer’s new Phenoptics™ workflow solutions for quantitative pathology in research applications. Phenoptics solutions help researchers fully characterize immune cells and tumor cells in situ within tissue. This enables visualization and analysis of the complex cell interactions within the tumor microenvironment in ways that are difficult to achieve with other methods.

“We designed our Opal kits to play an integral role in advancing understanding of cancer, helping researchers make more informed decisions for better health outcomes,” said Brian Kim, President, Life Sciences & Technology. “As a key component of our comprehensive tissue biomarker offering, the Opal kits remove barriers around quantitative multiplex protein detection in tissue, helping translate to the discovery of breakthrough immunotherapies.”

HOW THEY WORK: With Opal kits, researchers can detect up to six biomarkers plus nuclear counterstain within a single formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) tissue section. This enables them to assess multiple cellular phenotypes and understand how they interact within the tissue microenvironment. This approach facilitates measurement of single cell co-expression and cellular phenotyping, while retaining context that is lost in other methods such as flow cytometry or analysis of single markers in serial sections. It also provides information on the spatial relations and interactions of immune cells in a single tumor cross section.

Researchers can leverage the Opal kits to select and validate antibodies for multiplex IHC based on performance rather than on species. This approach eliminates species-based crosstalk and permits up to six different antibodies (regardless of species) together in a single assay. They can also obtain more information and generate actionable results from limited samples.

PerkinElmer’s Phenoptics portfolio of research workflow solutions also includes the Mantra™ quantitative pathology workstation, Vectra® automated quantitative pathology imaging system, and inForm® image analysis software.

About PerkinElmer, Inc.

PerkinElmer, Inc. is a global leader focused on improving the health and safety of people and the environment. The Company reported revenue of approximately $2.2 billion in 2014, has about 7,700 employees serving customers in more than 150 countries, and is a component of the S&P 500 Index. Additional information is available through 1-877-PKI-NYSE, or at www.perkinelmer.com.