Who We Are

The Comparative Pathology Laboratory at the University of Georgia is dedicated to providing expert diagnostic and research pathology services to investigators using laboratory animals in their research projects.

Why You Need Veterinary Pathology Services

Proper interpretation of morphological changes

• Specialized training is required to recognize disease-associated abnormalities (lesions) in organs and tissues
• Assessment, description, and interpretation of specimens (lesions) should be performed by a pathologist
• Due to species differences, human vs. laboratory animal, tissues from research animals should be evaluated by a veterinary pathologist experienced in laboratory animal pathology

Expertise in animal models for specific diseases

• Choosing an appropriate animal model system
• Knowing the drawbacks/limitations of the chosen animal model system (especially strain-specific pathology that can interfere with morphologic evaluation)
• Assistance in developing and validating new (especially genetically modified) models

Expertise in genetically engineered mice

• Various mouse strain(s) used to generate mutant mice usually have a unique set of background lesions
• Type of modification: transgenic, knock-out, knock-in, etc.
• Construct used can present its own set of problems: tissue-specificity of a given promoter, integration into the genome, copy number, etc.

More competitive grant applications

• Assistance with appropriate sections of grant proposals

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