Fixed and embedded tissues refer to biological samples that have been preserved, typically through fixation with formalin and subsequent embedding in paraffin wax. These processes are useful in histology and pathology to preserve tissue structure for microscopic examination. However, formalin fixation can crosslink DNA with proteins, making it challenging to isolate high-quality and intact DNA from these samples. DNA isolated from fixed and embedded tissues has applications in histopathology studies, biomarker discovery, forensic DNA analysis, archival research, rare disease research, molecular epidemiology, and assay validation.
