The Art of the Laboratory
For the seventh time, we asked you to share the images you think capture the most beautiful, educational, or amusing aspects of pathology – and you delivered. Welcome to our gallery tour of the most visually striking discipline in medicine!
| Gallery
A Perfect Swirl
Keratin pearl in a tongue squamous cell carcinoma.
Snake Vessel
Adipose tissue and a snake-shaped blood vessel.
Credit: Alicia Rumayor Piña, Dentistry School, Autonomous University of Coahuila, Saltillo, Coahuila, Mexico.
Another World
Digital manipulation of amyloid deposits visualized by polarized light microscopy.
Credit: Amber Matkowski, Junior Doctor, Wye Valley NHS Trust, UK.
Colon Flowers
Kreyberg stain of a colon biopsy.
Squamous Seahorse
H&E stain of an esophageal biopsy.
Credit: Ana I. Hernandez Caballero, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York, USA
Mucineon
A stylized example of histopathology from a mucinous cholangiocarcinoma.
B. Alan Rampy, Associate Professor of Diagnostic Medicine and Medical Education and Distinguished Teaching Professor, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas, USA.
XOXO Biopsy
A tubular adenoma from a GI biopsy.
Caroline Stanek, PGY-1, Department of Pathology, Heersink School of Medicine, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama, USA
T. rex
uman cervical biopsy CIN3.
Phoenix
Human cervical biopsy CIN3.
Credit: Christine Carreira, Research Assistant, WHO/IARC Classification of Tumours Group, International Agency for Research on Cancer, World Health Organization, Lyon, France.
Crypto Mushroom
A collage of slides of lung tissue from a patient with disseminated Cryptococcus neoformans fungal infection.
Credit: Cooper Schwartz, Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA.
Gouty Rain
A needle-shape negative birefringent image of gout.
Credit: Dalila Villalobos, PGY-5 Anatomical Pathology, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Fasciola Hepatica Tree
Pathology images are often reminiscent of real-life objects, animals, and many other things we frequently find in our daily surroundings. I am inspired by what I see under the microscope to create a connection between these two worlds.
Sessile Serrated Adenoma Ocean
Curious Giardia
Twisted Taenia
Credit: Emanuela Veras, Highlands Pathology, Bristol, Tennessee, USA.
The Invasion Begins
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... a galactic strike ship from an unknown planet is ready to invade and conquer the universe. This photomicrograph is a mitral valve from a patient with rheumatic heart disease with amyloid accumulation, stained with Congo red to show the characteristic apple-green birefringence on a polarizing microscope.
Credit: Franz Jobert L. Sebastian, Philippine Heart Center, Quezon City, Philippines.
Peer Inside the Fish
Longitudinal cross section of fish fry stained using Masson’s trichrome protocol. By Frazer Bell, Lynn Stevenson, Lynn Oxford, and Jan Duncan.
Medusa Fish Gills
Fish gills looking like jellyfish during the medusa phase, stained using Masson’s trichrome protocol. By Frazer Bell, Lynn Stevenson, Lynn Oxford, and Jan Duncan.
Stained Glass Fish Spine
A magnified look into the spine of a fish, looking almost like a stained glass window. By Frazer Bell, Lynn Stevenson, Lynn Oxford, and Jan Duncan.
Credit: Frazer Bell, Histopathology Technician, Veterinary Diagnostic Services, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Walking the Cobblestones of OPA
Ovine lung stained using IHC pan-cytokeratin. Ovine pulmonary adenocarcinoma (OPA) caused by jaagsiekte sheep rotavirus (JSRV). By Angie Rupp, Frazer Bell, Lynn Stevenson, Lynn Oxford, and Jan Duncan.
Credit: Angie Rupp, Senior Veterinary Clinician, Veterinary Diagnostic Services, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Malevolent Clown
Picture from a surgical piece with breast ductal carcinoma. (Histology technicians: G. Arteaga and P. Arteaga.)
Supernova
Picture from a chest tumor: pleomorphic liposarcoma. (Histology technicians: G. Arteaga and P. Arteaga.)
Helix Nebula: "The Eye of God"
Picture from a brain tumor: pleomorphic xanthoastrocytoma. (Histology technicians: G. Arteaga and P. Arteaga.)
Credit: Gabriel Arismendi-Morillo, Pathologist, Professor, and Researcher, Electron Microscopy Laboratory, Biological Researches Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of Zulia, Maracaibo, Venezuela.
Lazy Goat
When you're trying to screen slides, but pareidolia takes over...
When you're trying to screen slides, but pareidolia takes over...
Credit: Mercia Locke, Cytotechnologist, Southern Arizona VA Health Care System, Tucson, Arizona, USA
Goofy Smile
Fetal tissue.
Credit: Georgios Kitsakis, Histopathology Resident, General Hospital of Volos, Greece.
Deep Purple
A polarized image of feces under a microscope.
Credit: Hansini Laharwani, PGY-4 Pathology Resident, University of Mississippi Medical Center, Jackson, Mississippi, USA.
Message From the Heart
An incidental finding from an affectionate specimen. Taken using the InfinityCapture system.
Credit: Inny Busmanis, Senior Consultant Pathologist, Singapore General Hospital, Singapore.
Abstract Art in Pathology
A histologic section of a skin biopsy specimen looks like an eagle with a hair follicle looking like its eye.
A histologic section of a normal skin biopsy specimen looks like a Parrot.
A histologic section of a small piece of decidual tissue in an endometrial curettage specimen looks like a lady praying in a prostrate position.
A histologic section of a cell-block of a fine needle aspirate of a mediastinal lymph node shows a cluster of metastatic squamous cell carcinoma cells that looks like a dog.
Credit: Jagmohan S. Sidhu, Medical Director and Chairman, Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, United Health Services Hospitals-Wilson Medical Center/ Binghamton General Hospital, Johnson City/Binghamton, New York, USA.
Rolling Eyes
A most sarcastic oncocytic papilloma!
James Lewis, Jr., Professor and Chief of Head and Neck and Endocrine Pathology, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Nature's Gallbladder
Pathology is in the eye of the beholder…
Credit: Jason Innerhofer, Lead Pathologists’ Assistant; Faculty Preceptor, Rosalind Franklin University; and Clinical Instructor, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA.
E-Rosette Bouquet
Cerebrospinal fluid light microscopy showing erythrocytes rosetting around lymphocytes and neutrophils. The bouquet was made using a grid art app.
Credit: Jayashree Kulkarni, Consultant and Head of Hematopathology, Sri Shankara Cancer Hospital and Research Center, Bangalore, India.
Astonished
The Astonished Prostate Adenocarcinoma
Credit: José Antonio Ortiz Rey, Hospital Álvaro Cunqueiro, Vigo, Spain.
These Are Pathologists
People who have met me know that medicine is my biggest passion – a fire that burned even brighter when I met my pathology squad. It’s about the beauty of nature and mechanisms. About asking not “why?” but “how?” About endless hours spent sitting at a microscope, with whole-slide images on a screen, in the lab, in dissection rooms, listening to lectures and congresses… And now, I also help to improve pathology teaching. Curiosity makes science fun.
In 2017, I began thinking about future imaging possibilities. These colleagues are sitting around a table with a 3D holographic biopsy/MRI molecular image…
The Bond of Love
Caption: This art was a recent commission for a kidney pathologists as a present from his cardiologist wife.
Credit: Maaia Jentus, Medical University of Vienna, Austria
BM CD34 & BM H&E
These pieces were created for a mentor of mine who is a pathologist. They are inspired by CD34 and H&E stains of bone marrow; the medium is watercolor, metallic paints, and ink. Though I am still open to the specialty I will be pursuing, I have a particular fondness for pathology and laboratory-based medicine. I was a field ecologist in a previous life (as a nontraditional medical student) and spent much time peering through scopes at different freshwater microorganisms. Disease ecology is eventually what brought me to medicine, so I am grateful for my time in the lab.
These pieces were created for a mentor of mine who is a pathologist. They are inspired by CD34 and H&E stains of bone marrow; the medium is watercolor, metallic paints, and ink. Though I am still open to the specialty I will be pursuing, I have a particular fondness for pathology and laboratory-based medicine. I was a field ecologist in a previous life (as a nontraditional medical student) and spent much time peering through scopes at different freshwater microorganisms. Disease ecology is eventually what brought me to medicine, so I am grateful for my time in the lab.
These pieces were created for a mentor of mine who is a pathologist. They are inspired by CD34 and H&E stains of bone marrow; the medium is watercolor, metallic paints, and ink. Though I am still open to the specialty I will be pursuing, I have a particular fondness for pathology and laboratory-based medicine. I was a field ecologist in a previous life (as a nontraditional medical student) and spent much time peering through scopes at different freshwater microorganisms. Disease ecology is eventually what brought me to medicine, so I am grateful for my time in the lab.
These pieces were created for a mentor of mine who is a pathologist. They are inspired by CD34 and H&E stains of bone marrow; the medium is watercolor, metallic paints, and ink. Though I am still open to the specialty I will be pursuing, I have a particular fondness for pathology and laboratory-based medicine. I was a field ecologist in a previous life (as a nontraditional medical student) and spent much time peering through scopes at different freshwater microorganisms. Disease ecology is eventually what brought me to medicine, so I am grateful for my time in the lab.
Credit: Yeonsoo Sara Lee, Medical Student, Mayo Clinic Alix School of Medicine, Rochester, Minnesota, USA
Corporae
Gorgeous concentric circles in a corpus amylaceous. In reality, this would be a sphere; let your imagination run wild to this artistry in life.
Credit: Mayah Hijazi, Resident, Department of Pathology, LAC+USC Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, USA
Pandemic Paintings
At the Hospital for Special Surgery, we were lucky enough to be able to use whole-slide imager (with FDA approval) to do at least some of our signout work from home.
Nonetheless, the pandemic definitely increased my reading time and my bread-baking skills. For me, however, a return to painting watercolors after a 40-year break has been a good distraction.
I am not too good at artwork, but I have learned enough to know that, when interpersonal contact comes back and I’m less paranoid about getting a breakthrough case, I’m going to invest in lessons from someone who knows how to paint a bit better than I do!
Credit: Michael J. Klein, Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Weill-Cornell College of Medicine and Pathologist in Chief Emeritus at the Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, USA
Star Mit, Star Bright
A uniquely shaped mitosis in a triple-negative breast cancer.
Credit: Nika Gloyeske, Clinical Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, The University of Kansas Health System, Kansas City, Kansas, USA
Flying Bird
An image taken from ThinPrep preparation of a fine needle aspiration biopsy of a thyroid nodule.
Credit: Nusaiba Alrefae, Cytopathology Unit, Sabah Hospital, Kuwait
The Psammomatous Night
Psammomatous meningioma in the background sky of Vincent van Gogh’s Starry Night.
Credit: Richard Prayson, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Contentment
A collection of paintings by cancer researcher Sadaf Sarfraz.
Companion
A collection of paintings by cancer researcher Sadaf Sarfraz.
Fierce Flight
A collection of paintings by cancer researcher Sadaf Sarfraz.
Credit: Sadaf Sarfraz, Molecular Pathology and Genomics, Forman Christian College University, Lahore, Pakistan.
Xenotransplant
This image of a prostatic gland has an uncanny resemblance to Lord Ganesha in Hindu religion and mythology. Note that Lord Ganesh often has a rat near his feet – and even that is depicted in this prostate!
Credit: Sanjay A. Pai, Consultant Pathologist and Head of Pathology, Manipal Hospital Yeshwanthpur, Bangalore, India.
Invasive.
Watercolor and ink.
Credit: Sheryl Lammers, Retired Medical Technologist, Metropolitan Medical Laboratory, Moline, Illinois, USA
Abstract Photomicrography
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Microscopic view of calcium deposits. A) Calcified foreign body material; B) calcified plaque in blood vessel; C) corpora amylacea in the prostate. D,E) Foreign body material under polarized light. F) Plant foreign body material, GMS stain. All images were taken and edited using iPhone X.
Credit: Snehal Sonawane, Staff Pathologist, South Bend Medical Foundation, South Bend, Indiana, USA
Road to Mama
A young woman is walking along a road and looking back with uncertainty. The end of the road turns into an umbilical cord and ends in a placenta. The placenta symbolizes motherhood; the road the connection of the young woman with her mother. It is uncertain why this young woman is seeking connection with her mother at this particular time in her life.
Credit: Supriya R. Donthamsetty, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.
Play-Doh Adventures
Here is some rudimentary play-doh art I did with my four-year-old before I ventured into my residency, after which I lost all touch with time and space!
Here is some rudimentary play-doh art I did with my four-year-old before I ventured into my residency, after which I lost all touch with time and space!
Credit: Syeda Qasim, PGY-1, Cooperman Barnabas Hospital, Livingston, New Jersey, USA.
