This rotation will consist of an introduction to and some experience in Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology. The student may participate in the performance of autopsies and examination of surgical material and cytologic material and have some exposure to forensic pathology and forensic medicine. Also there may be some experience and insight into basic areas of Clinical Pathology, including Hematology, Microbiology, Clinical Chemistry, Immunopathology, Urinalysis and Blood Banking. Certain areas may receive more attention or concentration than others depending on the interest or background of the individual student. During this rotation, the student will gain a better understanding of the scope and limitations of the hospital laboratory and pathology services and will better understand the role of the hospital pathologists and the laboratory in the overall care of patients and function of the institution.

The student will work with on T and B lymphocytes, monocytes, macrophages, dendritic cells, natural killer cells and their precursors from peripheral blood, cord blood, lymphoid and other tissues obtained from patients or experimental hosts. Considerable attention will be given to cell phenotyping, apoptosis induction, cytokine production, proliferation, cytoxicity and other functional characteristics as well as cell-cell interactions. Some of the faculty research focus areas include: cancer immunology and immunotherapy particularly using interleukins and pharmacologically-activated dendritic cells; complementary and alternative medicine; immunotoxicology; biological and chemical defense research and infectious disease. The student will have opportunities to utilize state-of-the-art technology such as transgenics and knockouts, flow cytometry and sorting, confocal and electron microscopy, cytoxicity and proliferation assays, apoptosis and cytokine detection, genomics, proteomics and metabolomics technology, histopathology and immunohistochemistry. The studies are aimed at developing translational and clinical research.