Ventana Medical Systems of Tucson, Ariz. has received US Patent No. 6,933,117, "Reagents and methods for automated hybridization." The patented invention relates to reagents, reagent kits, and methods for automated hybridization. Specifically the invention describes reagents, reagent kits, and methods for automated in situ hybridization and automated hybridization on microarrays. The method for in situ hybridization comprises "exposing a cell or tissue sample to a pre-hybridization solution; exposing the sample to a cell conditioning reagent; exposing the sample to a nucleic acid probe in a hybridization solution; exposing the sample to a wash solution; exposing the sample to a post-hybridization fixing solution; and analyzing the sample for hybridization between the probe and a target nucleic acid, all using an automated instrument. The method described for automated microarray hybridization of the invention comprises exposing a microarray to a spreading enhancer solution; exposing the microarray to a blocking solution; exposing the microarray to a target nucleic acid in a hybridization solution; exposing the microarray to a wash solution; exposing the microarray to a microarray cleaning solution; and analyzing the microarray for hybridization between a nucleic acid probe and the nucleic acid target; all using an automated instrument.