As a histologist, when you say “I work in research” what does that mean?
The reality? It can mean a variety of things—histologists working in research can find themselves in biomedical labs, pharmaceutical companies, veterinary diagnostics, academic research facilities…the list goes on. One research histologist could be working on flock health or the health of an aquatic species while another in a different environment could be processing samples to assess the safety or viability of various medicines, vaccines, or medical devices.
The bulk of my career has been working with animal tissue at a Contract Research Organization (CRO) or a pharmaceutical company. CRO’s take in samples from clients from pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, the food industry, or academia. I enjoy the work and based on my experience, I think there are unique benefits to working in research labs.
For example, you have the opportunity to process many types of samples, from full tissue on Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) studies to more specialized tissues or structures within tissues. I’ve had the opportunity to make modifications to various aspects of skin fixation and processing to help improve the quality of skin sections for dermatology studies. I’ve even had the opportunity to process and stain non-standard samples containing cells for evaluation by the researcher.
Working with unique samples allows you the opportunity to develop new procedures. Since histologists may be working with unique tissue samples, there may not be established procedures or there is a need to modify existing procedures to improve tissue quality or highlight certain tissue structures.
I feel like I’m able to make an impact by contributing to various projects. As mentioned above, working in the Histology lab you may have the ability to contribute to the development of new drugs, vaccines, medical devices, and more. For instance, I worked on developing new ways to sample and examine heart valves in rodent hearts to help assess the safety of compounds in drug development studies.
It can be very interesting work! Not only can the work be very interesting and sometimes challenging, but there may also be an opportunity for you to pass along your histological knowledge to clients or researchers to help improve their processes.
I’m grateful that I’ve had the opportunity to follow this path in my histology career. The next time you have a conversation with a fellow NSH member working in research, ask them what they are working on. You never know what their next project may be!
Written By: Joanna Barton, BS, HT (ASCP), HTL (ASCP)
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