[Histonet] RE:Switching from hospital histo to Research

[Bernice Frederick]

Carol,
I actually work in what my boss calls "A hybrid" We do animal as well as
human correlative studies on cancer clinical trials. We are the histo
lab for ECOG- basically any clinical trial tissue comes to us for
banking and correlative studies on active trials. As for the animal, we
do the histo for the many research labs at the university. I have seen a
few in my short time here cross over to human. It's neat to read about
something out there and realize "hey we had a doctor doing that
experiment" 
How come you don't have a staff pathologist? I have a friend at Abbott
and they have one on hand. We have one here for research as well as
clinical trials. We also have the luxury that Northwestern Memorial
Hospital is across the street!!! Our director has the final approval on
antibody titres etc.
Bernice

Bernice Frederick HTL (ASCP)
Sr. Research Tech/Supervisor
Northwestern University
Pathology Core Facility
710 N Fairbanks Court
Olson 8-421
Chicago,IL 60611
312-503-3723


-----Original Message-----
From: histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
[mailto:histonet-bounces <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu] On Behalf Of Linda
Jenkins
Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 12:48 PM
To: histonet <@t> lists.utsouthwestern.edu
Subject: [Histonet] RE:Switching from hospital histo to Research

Hi, Carol!
	You  stated:

  " I'm contemplating making a switch from a routine hospital 
histology department to supervising a pharmaceutical research 
histology dept. working with mostly rodent tissue.  Any opinions, 
suggestions, or resources anyone would like to contribute would be 
greatly appreciated.  It seems like a much less stress level than a 
hospital is at times,..... so what am I missing or not thinking about 
as far as the "problems" in this type of histology?"

	Well, I made the switch 18 years ago and the thoughts of going
back 
to clinical have never entered my mind.  What's not to like?  Better 
pay, better benefits, MUCH less stress,  no more working holidays or 
weekends unless I choose to do so.  I think the primary ingredient to 
a successful transfer is that you must be self motivated and capable 
of independent work.  In clinical your days are fairly well defined 
(e.g. embed, section, stain, etc.).  In research, you just never know 
what each day will bring.  If you like orderly, routine days then you 
might want to stay in clinical.  I brought human protocols to my 
research lab and they all had to be severely modified.  Rodent tissue 
is so lean you must modify processing protocols or you will end up 
with (as Gayle Callis says) "crispy critters".  You will be asked to 
perform stains you have only read about and they will probably need 
to be modified on top of that. The only thing I really miss is being 
able to consult with a pathologist and histology colleagues when I 
encounter problems. Part of that problem was solved by joining NSH's 
VIR & Hard Tissue committees where I have bunches of "bonehead 
buddies" doing the stuff I am.  I still haven't found a research 
pathologist - much to my chagrin.
	I thought I was happy in clinical histology until I entered the 
world of research.  Now, I know true happiness!

	Hope this helps,
	Linda
   


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