Role of the study pathologist

Toxicologic pathology relies on many disciplines of toxicology and basic sciences and often requires other fields and skills such as biostatistics, study design, guidelines, and knowledge of Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) regulations. Pathology is an integrative discipline where specific training and experience are required in order to integrate chemical or biological structures, molecular biology, physiology, and morphology for candidate selection and early development of a test article and to help in the design of appropriate preclinical/toxicology studies. Experience does matter and successful learning is determined by personal behavior; pathologists who not only read slides but research their topics and keep current with the literature are apt to be successful.