Histologic Technicians

Histology is from the Greek words histos, for "tissue," and logos, for "the study of." In 1664, Robert Hooke, an English scientist, used his penknife to slice pieces of cork. He placed these thin sections under the microscope. A few years later, the Dutch naturalist Anton van Leeuwenhoek used his shaving razor to carve thin sections from flowers, a writing quill, and a cow's optic nerve. Both men wanted to observe the microscopic structure of objects. Because of their investigations, the science of histology was born.

Histology became recognized as an academic discipline in the 19th century. In 1906, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to pathologists Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramón y Cajal for their pioneering work in staining techniques and interpretation of the neural structure of the brain. Today, histologic technicians use many new technologies to do their work. "In the modern histology lab, immunohistochemistry, digital pathology, and molecular (DNA/RNA) techniques are frequently utilized to provide accurate tumor identification, which will aid the clinician in selecting a treatment strategy that offers the greatest probability of cure," according to the National Society for Histotechnology.