Clinical Laboratory

“None of us is as smart as all of us.” -- Japanese proverb

Sub-specialty teams form the foundation of our clinical practice. Our teams provide collaborative relationships that support the highest quality patient care, facilitate multi-disciplinary research, and enhance education.

In partnership with outstanding laboratory professionals – many of whom trained right here at UC Davis – our expert pathologists deliver pathology and laboratory services to the UC Davis Medical Center and clinics, our primary care network, and clients throughout our region.

 

Meet our teams:

Surgical Pathology and Cytology

Team A: Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology

Gastrointestinal


Team B: Gynecologic, Endocrine Pathology and Cytopathology

Gynecology   Cytology


Team C: Breast, Head and Neck, Genito-Urinary, Lung, Soft-Tissue/Bone

Breast

Renal Pathology

 

Dermatopathology

Dermatopathology  

Neuropathology

Neuropathology

Ocular Pathology

Ocular pathology
  • Esther Kim, M.D.

Autopsy Pathology

  • Jason Tovar, M.D.

Cytology

  • Kurt Schaberg, M.D.
  • Karleen Meiklejohn, M.D.
  • Mega Lahori, M.D.
  • Chihong "Heidi" Zhou

Our clinical services include:

Anatomic Pathology Comprehensive diagnostic and consultative services are available in surgical pathology, neuropathology, and cytopathology. These include traditional light microscopy, immunohistochemistry, in-situ hybridization, flow cytometry, pathologist-led fine needle aspiration (FNA) clinic, and on-site adequacy evaluations for FNAs performed by radiologists and endoscopists. Subspecialty second opinions (including telepathology), and quality improvement consultations are also available.  Autopsies can be arranged, and are performed by forensic pathologists at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office. 

The Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is now offering full diagnostic and consultative services for native and transplant renal biopsies. Expert interpretation is provided by Dr. Kuang-Yu Jen, Director of Renal Pathology.

  • Highest quality and expertise
  • Rapid turn-around guarantee
    • Phone call from Dr. Jen and preliminary report will be provided by 5 PM for all specimens received by 4 PM of the prior day
    • Full report within 72 hours (on typical cases)
  • Readily available access to Dr. Jen via phone or on-line conferencing with ability to view biopsies
  • Access to biopsy  pictures and  digitized whole slide scans
  • Local courier service
  • Free biopsy kits and free shipping

For more information see our flier (pdf).

Laboratory Medicine More than 4 million tests per year are performed using a wide variety of methodologies in our specialized state-of-the art laboratory sections. Our fully-automated core laboratory provides routine testing with rapid turnaround time in clinical chemistry and hematology. Other laboratory sections include point of care testing, endocrinology, toxicology, microbiology, coagulation, hematopathology, immunology, and molecular/genomic pathology. 

Our transfusion services are accredited by the Association of American Blood Banks and support UC Davis’ highly complex patient care needs as the only level 1 trauma center for both adult and pediatric emergencies in inland Northern California, as a NCI-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center, and as nationally-ranked programs in surgery, pediatrics and adult medicine.

Apheresis As an official apheresis collection center for the Be the Match National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), our program is one of the few full-service apheresis units serving Northern California.  We support stem cell and other transplant programs at UC Davis Medical Center and other hospitals through 24-hour consultation, execution, and monitoring of therapeutic apheresis procedures. We also perform hematopoietic progenitor collection and processing. Therapies include plasma exchange, red cell exchange, leukoreduction and  platelet reduction, in addition to photopheresis.

Designated a Roche Center of Excellence in 2014, our molecular pathology section is also a member of Foundation Medicine’s Precision Medicine Exchange Consortium which provides access to innovative information tools, programs tailored to fit the needs of our medical center, and programs that advance precision medicine and molecular oncology through training and education

In collaboration with the Departments of Dermatology and Ophthalmology respectively, our teams include dermatopathologists and ocular pathologists who also have training in their clinical disciplines, in addition those with primary training in pathology.  This diversity provides complementary skills that ensures comprehensive high-quality service.

We are delighted to provide services to clients outside of UC Davis Health through our outreach arm, UC Davis Medical Diagnostics. 

Our Progenitor Laboratory supports our apheresis service and bone marrow transplantation program, and is fully accredited by the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies.  Our services include autologous collection and processing, as well as allogeneic donations through the National Marrow Donor Program.