Raavi Gupta, a pathologist and associate professor, conducted a session on pathology at the Mott Hall School, where students learned about blood typing, handled human preserved organs, and observed organ tissue under microscope.

Raavi started the session by giving the students an understanding of the role of a pathologist and the different types of jobs a pathologist could be doing like blood and tissue diagnosis, medical autopsy, forensic pathology, cytogenetics, etc. She then took them through the basics of blood types and how to identify different blood types. Students then got an opportunity to conduct a test where they could identify the blood type of the blood sample they were given. Raavi then took them how a blood bank is run and students had many interesting questions about what happens when a wrong blood type is given and how do you prevent that.

Raavi then explained to them about different organs and their role, and how their tissues look different. She had brought along a slice of brain, a small stomach, and a pair of lungs infected by TB, all stored in formalin of course. Students took their time observing details of these organs and making diagrams of these organs.

In the last activity, students looked at stomach tissue and lung tissue under a microscope. Some creative students took pictures of these cells using their iphones held closely to the microscope!

By the end of the session, some students were dry-heaving at the sight of the organs and some declared that all they wanted to do when they grew up was become a pathologist and handle dead organs!