The Comparative Pathology Laboratory (CPL) provides in-house gross anatomic pathology and clinical pathology services in support of the research programs at the Mount Sinai Health System and the clinical programs of the Center for Comparative Medicine and Surgery (CCMS).
The lab is under the direction of a full time comparative pathologist. Staff includes a laboratory manager and two full-time laboratory technicians. The primary laboratory is located on the 26th floor of Annenberg, room 26-92. Laboratory support areas are three necropsy suites, Annenberg room 26-93, Icahn Medical Institute S1-27H, and Hess Center for Science and Medicine SC1-326. All necropsy rooms are equipped with down draft tables and surgical lights. Members of the Mount Sinai research community can sign up for the necropsy rooms online.
The CPL has full histology capabilities with equipment including Sakura Tissue-Tek VIP Tissue Processor, Leica EG1150 embedding station, Microm microtome, Triangle Biomedical Sciences floatation workstation, and vented safety enclosure with histochemical staining stations. We also have multiple single-headed microscopes (light, fluorescent, and dissecting) and two doubled-headed teaching microscopes, one of which is outfitted with a digital video color camera and monitor. Other laboratory equipment includes ProCyte Hematology Analyzer, AirClean 600 PCR workstation, and GeneAMP (Perkin Elmer) PCR equipment.
Although we perform most diagnostics in-house, we use commercial and academic labs to confirm positive serology results. Commercial labs also perform nonhuman primate virology. We send the following materials to reference laboratories: simian serology panel, rodent serology, rodent pathogen IMPACT for cell lines or tumors, endocrinology tests, and biochemistry and other special assays. We use three commercial and academic labs Charles River Lab, BioReliance Lab, and IDEXX.
We work closely with several existing shared research facilities (SRF) on campus (Biorepository/Histology SRF, qPCR SRF, and Microscopy SRF) to increase the support available to the research community.