histology

Laura Severs, MHA, MLS (ASCP) is the Director of Clinical Operations at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Her 15-year career as a medical laboratory scientist, transfusion services leader, and point-of-care coordinator, and laboratory leader positions Ms. Severs to provide solid guidance to the opportunities available to those considering a medical laboratory science (MLS) career.

Listen to this podcast as Laura discusses medical laboratory science as a service career, the MLS internship, provides guidance to college science majors, and discusses the best and worst parts of an MLS career.

College students who are biology, chemistry, microbiology majors:  A medical laboratory science career can be a successful career choice for you.

This 3 minute podcast outlines reasons to consider a career as a medical laboratory scientists.  Contact me at gary@mls2030.com for more information and free career guidance.

Theresa Cordonier, from Timberland High School (St. Charles County, MO), provides guidance to parents and students on health care science careers with a focus on medical laboratory scientists careers.

Cancer biopsies are scary. The patient gets tissue removed from his or her body, the sample gets sent off to the lab and then there's the agonizing wait for the results.  Dr. Stephen Boppart of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, both a physician and an engineer, is working on instant biopsies that will produce results in minutes. Using laser light and artificial intelligence, Dr. Boppart and his colleagues have been able to identify cancers early and accurately. Moreover, this technique promises to identify conditions in the body that might lead to future cancers by looking at tiny vesicles, liquid-filled sacs that act as messengers.  His "Town Talk" sponsored by Telluride Science, was recorded at the Telluride Mountain Village Conference Center in Colorado.  The program was moderated by veteran broadcast journalists Judy Muller and George Lewis.

In an exclusive interview, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of HistoIndex, Dr. Dean Tai, joins Fatty Liver Researcher Prof. Dr. Jörn Schattenberg on Surfing the NASH Tsunami podcast with host, Roger Green. The trio discuss pertinent questions stemming from data derived from Phase 2 trial results of aldafermin and resmetirom whereby liver volume reduction was achieved in a considerably abbreviated period. HistoIndex was able to subsequently investigate fibrosis reduction in these studies by conducting AI-assisted histologic assessment to gather a deeper understanding of fibrosis dynamics on a continuous scale.

Jörn introduces the corresponding poster held at NASH-TAG 2023, which reviews the application and compelling results of the qFibrosis® and qSteatosis® products. Dean then elucidates how AI-assisted zonal mapping of the liver delivers a targeted and statistically-improved assessment of fibrosis reduction. Interestingly, two distinctly different fibrosis regression patterns emerged between the aldafermin and resmetirom cohorts. The implication: highly-precise assessment of liver slides is sparking a spate of new questions surrounding therapeutic possibilities. Jörn offers two cogent observations. First, these technologies can drastically improve understanding of how much change in fibrosis really occurs. He points out that while many different MOAs are trialed in comparable populations, it may be that not all drugs are affecting fibrosis regression by the same mechanism. With the technology implemented by HistoIndex, researchers can now begin to assess the nuances of how and where these drugs act.

A different, but critically important idea emerges: patients deserve to have the fullest extent of utility extrapolated from their donated tissue. There is also noted to be a plethora of existing data containing what Dean describes as “a gold mine” for retrospective analysis. The group continues on to explore and compare the myriad of potential future applications of these tools. It becomes clear that advancements in AI-based digital pathology are paving a path for an entirely new, imaginative line of thinking for the Fatty Liver field. Listen to the full feature for more on this illuminating topic.

NASH-TAG 2023 proved to be a watershed moment for Fatty Liver disease as exciting drug development readouts, powerful academic work on non-invasive tests and the willingness to dive into the toughest questions aligned in Deer Valley, Utah. In this weekend’s conversation series, Surfing NASH reviews its diverse coverage of the conference by showcasing key excerpts across six recordings with various KOLs, patient advocates and stakeholders.

This conversation with Naim Alkhouri, Amy Articolo and Jörn Schattenberg begins with Naim illustrating some of the high points of the meeting. First, he recaps the resmetirom data. He then highlights that Intercept’s study of patient response to obeticholic acid (OCA) revealed improvements among the F3 population. He concludes that in the wake of these aforementioned results, there remains plenty of opportunity to improve and other biotechs “are still in the game” with the energy to back them. Jörn notes the high level of engagement from academia in supporting development through the consortia, NIMBLE and LITMUS. Amy credits the collaborative spirit of the meeting and the milestones achieved in improving the field’s understanding of how best to utilize NITs to provide insight and serve patient needs. 

Roger Green steers conversation toward the challenges of payers and gaps in therapeutic efficacy for certain populations. He connects these ideas to slides presented by Naim on AI-driven zonal analysis developed by HistoIndex. The assessment provides a geographic vantage point that offers perspective on how to combine agent benefits and trial emerging opportunities. Amy agrees that some of the complex analytics will help pharma build its case for patients. Naim questions what we call “futility” – if patients stay the same, are they futile? He suggests that AI can help us determine whether people who do not reduce fibrosis are actually benefiting from therapy. Roger notes that Naim outlined three categories: patients whose fibrosis regressed, others who progressed and a third group somewhere in the middle yet to be defined. Naim agrees and underscores that with the non-invasive tests available, we can learn far more than what’s known today. Amy responds with questions around how tests will be used practically, noting that stacked tests are pivotal to the story. As the conversation ends, Jörn notes biopsy is only one way to generate a conditional endpoint for drug approvals.

When we get on an airplane, we trust the pilot, the air traffic controller, mechanic and many others we don't see to get us to our destination.

If you are looking for a behind-the-scenes career in health care, the medical laboratory scientist is one of the careers to consider.

This podcast draws comparisons to what airline pilots and medical laboratory scientists do to get their passengers/patients to their respective end destinations.

The medical laboratory in the hospital your family uses or the one your physican uses when ordering lab tests is a place of black-box mystery.  Our blood and body fluids are sent there and, as if by magic, a health determing normal or abnormal result is released for your health care provider to use for your diagnosis and treatment.

The medical laboratory scientist (MLS) who performs all of those tests is a 'hidden profession'.  Yet, the demand for his and her work constitutes about 70% of all of the data needed to diagnose and treat patients.  

This hidden profession needs many more educated and trained medical laboratory scientists - and they are needed yesterday.

I embarked on this  MLS career awareness journey because I am one.  I am paying forward my career to those looking for their career in a setting where the work is meaningful and the career growth is strong.

Mei Lin Bissonnette is Clinical Associate Professor at the University of British Columbia and Director of the BC Provincial Renal Pathology Laboratory, St. Paul’s Hospital, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Hayley Pincott is Associate Practitioner in the Oral Pathology and Microbiology department at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, Cardiff, UK.

Rajendra Singh is Professor of Dermatology and Pathology, Director of Dermatopathology, and Associate Chair of Digital Pathology at Northwell Health, New York, USA. He is also the Founder of PathPresenter Corporation. He can be found on Twitter at @mydermpath and @pathpresenter.

Melanie Bois is Consultant in the Division of Anatomic Pathology and Assistant Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA. She can be found on Twitter at @MelanieBoisMD.

Join us back on the tour bus on January 11, 2022, for the next stop in our two-episode, histopathology special!

Do you know your way around the lab – and what your colleagues do day in and day out? Join us on The Pathology Grand Tour to hear about the work of pathologists and laboratory medicine professionals in a wide range of disciplines – and how their work interacts with yours! 

Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers to discuss key themes they hope to hear at the January 29 FDA Webcast on NASH Drug Development.

In this conversation, Professor Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers to explore some of the specific items for which they hope the FDA will provide clear guidance at its January 29 webcast on NASH Drug Development. Key issues included: (a) how to manage sample sizes with both safety issues and the need for patient heterogeneity in mind, and (b) whether we can seek to reduce screen fail rates by utilizing high-value non-invasive tests like MR elastography and MRI-PDFF in qualifying patients for clinical trials.

Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers to discuss key themes they hope to hear at the January 29 FDA Webcast on NASH Drug Development.

In this conversation, Professor Manal Abdelmalek joins the Surfers to explore some of the major themes they hope the FDA will address at its January 29 webcast on NASH Drug Development. Key issues included: implications of safety: efficacy tradeoffs in the approval process, expanding use of non-invasive testing during Phase 2 trials, and language in the agency's white paper suggesting that Phase 3 trials possibly should be two years or longer.