News
Continuing Education in the Laboratory
When James A. Kaufman caused an accident in the lab within two weeks of his start date of working for a biochemical company at age 30, he realized that school hadn’t fully prepared him for the laboratory environment. That incident was the tipping point for Kaufman. Ever since, he’s spent more than four decades trying to figure out how to share with others some of what he has learned about safety through the Laboratory Safety Institute (LSi), which he founded.
How Whole Slide Imaging is Changing the Role of the Pathologist
Histopathology, which involves the microscopic examination of patient tissues for the identification of tissue abnormalities, is a largely manual process. It requires slide preparation by fixing, followed by staining for specific cell and tissue markers, and finally, visual inspection by a pathologist.
Health Canada Urged to Regulate Laboratory-Developed Tests
Health Canada is the latest government healthcare organization under pressure to enact legislation that regulates laboratory-developed tests (LDTs). In a public commentary, several members of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto in Ontario, urged Canadian lawmakers to follow the European Union’s lead and find ways to monitor LDTs in Canada.
LifeLabs pays ransom after cyberattack exposes information of 15 million customers in B.C. and Ontario
The Canadian laboratory testing company LifeLabs says it made a payment to criminals to retrieve the sensitive information of millions of customers after a cyber attack on its computer systems. In a letter to customers, LifeLabs president Charles Brown wrote that information related to about 15 million customers, mainly in B.C. and Ontario, may have been accessed during the breach.
The Utility of Urine Cytology in Predicting Recurrence following Intravesical Therapy for Non‐Muscle Invasive Bladder Cancer
Urine cytology plays an essential role in detecting patients who are at high risk for disease recurrence following non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) treatment. A recent study Gupta et al. in the World Journal of Urology evaluated the accuracy of urine cytology in detecting recurrence and progression following therapy for NMIBC.
Alberta study shows DNA may not actually be good predictor of disease, health |
A new study conducted at the University of Alberta suggests that genes have less to do with developing diseases than previously thought. The study, which involved scientists examining two decades of data, concluded that DNA contribution to disease development is only about five to 10 per cent.
NIH launches first U.S. clinical trial of patient-derived stem cell therapy to replace dying cells in retina
Researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) are launching a clinical trial to test the safety of a novel patient-specific stem cell-based therapy to treat geographic atrophy, the advanced “dry” form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a leading cause of vision loss among people age 65 and older. The geographic atrophy form of AMD currently has no treatment.
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