[Histonet] Leica Bond Max - any opinions?

[Michelle MacVeigh-Aloni]

Hi all,

I am researching the Leica Bond Max immunostainer and I like its features as advertised. 

The advertisement however states that the system is completely open, but after discussing it in length with the Leica rep I am finding that this is actually not so... 

We are a research core and work with mice and rats. Most of the pre-made antibody are designed towards human tests, so we won't use them. Then we would still be stuck with lots of money for consumables (as I understood all sold as kits with the antibodies included). We won't be using any of the antibodies, only the rest of the solutions... Is there a way out of this trap? Is there something that I didn't understand?

My question is: 
Does anybody use Leica Bond as an open system and use other companies antibody, buffers and antigen retrieval protocols? If you do, what have you done so far? (Would you share your protocols?) We like the BioCare products and our helpful rep :-) 
Did anybody purchase the Research dongle? Do we really need it? How did it help you improve your applications? I was told that depending on what I want unlocked, we would have to spend $14000 to $27000 extra for it. OUCH!!! This is not a hospital where we can charge the insurance or patients for this... 

I need this info ASAP, because we have to make our decision in a day and there is no time to demo the unit (nor anything else).
I understand that it is great for pathology, but how about animal research? It costs A LOT!!! We better know what are we getting ourselves into.

 Please help! Any advise and suggestions that I can get would be highly appreciated.

Michelle Mac Veigh Aloni MS, HTL
USC School of Medicine 
Department of GI and Liver
Los Angeles, CA