The Pathology Teaching and Diagnostic Complex at Cornell University's College of Veterinary Medicine has been upgraded for the first time since it was built in the 1950s. The $1 million upgrade will propel the veterinary pathology laboratory into the 21st century so it can better teach the next generation of veterinarians to diagnose infectious diseases, and better guard against such critical issues as bioterrorism.

The college will celebrate the opening of the renovated complex on June 11, starting at 11 a.m. with a luncheon and ribbon-cutting at the Veterinary Research Tower on campus. 

Renovations to the necropsy teaching and service area in the college are more than just cosmetic. In addition to improvements to the Kenneth I. Gumaer Necropsy Laboratory, close to 3,900 square feet of additional space have been carefully redesigned to meet the changing needs of modern veterinary medicine. Newly constructed laboratories will now enable Cornell scientists to better deal with emerging and zoonotic diseases, which are capable of jumping from one animal species to another, including humans. The new design also allows for controlled access to the facility, necessary both for safety and bioterrorism concerns.

A new Diagnostic Immunohistology Laboratory will allow pathologists to apply antibodies to more accurately diagnose tumors and identify infectious agents in tissue. Next door, the Transmissible Spongiform Encephalopathy (TSE) Diagnosis Laboratory will provide a contained space for screening animals for TSE diseases like chronic wasting disease mostly found in deer, scrapie of domestic sheep and bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) -- mad cow disease -- of cattle. 

"The infectious proteins, known as prions, that cause TSE are extremely resistant so the work must be done in special areas so that these agents don't contaminate other laboratories," said Sean McDonough, associate professor in the college's Department of Biomedical Sciences.

The facilities also will include a state-of-the-art anatomic pathology teaching theater complete with bleachers for 60 students and high-visibility projection screens for a multimedia observation system. 

The new gross pathology teaching theater ("gross" refers to what can be seen with the eye as opposed to under a microscope) will allow students seated on bleachers to see teachers working on a specimen with a close-up view projected on screens. The digital projectors also will link to the Internet and computer files, giving professors, for example, a chance to compare a pneumonia case on the table with slides of other pneumonia cases. 

Future possibilities could include webcasting or telecasting to vets in other areas. "The possibilities are only going to be limited by the imaginations of our faculty," said McDonough.

Also, an avian, exotics and special procedures room will provide a controlled environment for examining infectious zoonotic diseases like rabies and psittacosis, a chlamydial disease of parrots. The special room will have a hooded biosafety cabinet and a down-draft table for drawing infectious agents out of the air. 

Other improvements include a new small-animal morgue with two separate and larger coolers, one for animals that might have died of infectious disease and another for pets or non-infectious corpses. Also, a tissue archive will now exist in a well-ventilated, climate-controlled room with ample shelving. This replaces a hard-to-access crawl space below an incinerator. 

Besides tissue-trimming stations that are easier to sit at for longer periods, there also is a loading dock leading to a small store room for 55-gallon drums of formalin, the preservative used for fixing tissues. Redesign of the heating and cooling units also will make the temperature in the space more comfortable. 

This renovation was funded by a New York state investment from the SUNY Construction Fund and an award from the Cornell Faculty Innovation in Teaching Grants Program, which is part of the Distributed Learning Initiative supported by the Offices of the President and the Provost.