Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory of Wisconsin

We are excited to share Zixin (Andy) Yu’s experience below, funded by Charlie’s Angels fund.

During my 2-week externship at the Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory of Wisconsin (COPLOW), I had the opportunity to be involved in the histopathologic work-up of ocular specimens sent to COPLOW, including trimming, analyzing, and photographing gross specimens and reviewing diagnostic slides with the COPLOW pathologists. I got to learn about how different disease processes manifest under histology. For example, I could see the histologic changes with iridocorneal angle in glaucoma patients with goniodysgenesis. It allowed me to understand the pathogenesis better.

I also participated in the multiple teaching rounds available at the veterinary school, such as ocular pathology rounds, ophthalmology journal club, and ophthalmology grand rounds at the medical school. In addition, I would use my downtime for self-guided studies, reviewing histopathology slides of ocular diseases from the collection. Every other day, Dr. Richard R. Dubielzig, the founder of COPLOW, would come into the lab to chat with me about comparative ocular anatomy. For instance, I learned how animals may have different eye conformation depending on the environment that they live in. Since COPLOW has a huge histologic collection of eyes from different animal species, Dr. Dubielzig pulled out histology slides of marine and terrestrial mammal’s eyes to demonstrate the differences.

Overall, I had a fantastic experience at COPLOW. I am thankful for the Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine Global Engagement Program, which made this experience possible.

Learning about differentiating between benign pigmentary melanosis and feline diffuse iris melanoma on the histology slide.

Working through the ocular histology slide sets