Maryland Society of Histotechnologists

Carol B. McCollough, BS, HT/HTL(ASCP)
Aquatic Animal Research Pathologist
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Fisheries Service
Cooperative Oxford Laboratory
Oxford, Maryland 21654
410-226-5193
cmccollough at dnr dot state dot md dot us

I received a BS in Biology from Washington College in 1983, and did 2 years of graduate work in Marine Biology at the University of Delaware. My first experience in histology was in an undergraduate Cell Biology class where we fixed rose stems, then hand processed and embedded them in paraffin over the course of 2 days. Each student was issued a steel knife wrapped in oiled paper, shown an AO microtome and a BRIEF demonstration of sectioning, then told to make slides. The sad sections produced were then hand stained, flat. We were given finger cots to protect us from the chemicals.

For the first eight years of my career I worked in water quality monitoring and fish population monitoring for the State of Maryland. In 1993 I applied for a position in a small DNR marine research lab that was focused on oyster diseases, because I was tired of managing people (not fish) and working in a big office building. I was the only applicant with any histology ‘experience’. I found many things changed from my classroom days! Within two years I was the Histology Laboratory Manager; two years later was certified as an HT; four years later got my HTL; and in 2004 I advanced into the shellfish pathologist position after the previous pathologist retired.

I’ve been a member of MSH and NSH since 1994. I’ve given two workshops on marine histology at the Region level. This is my first term on the MSH BOD.

COL’s Histology Lab works on oysters, various clams, scallops, finfish, crabs and other crustaceans, sea turtles, marine mammals, and the odd terrestrial critter. We perform our own necropsies on the mollusks, and are responsible for trimming in almost all other samples, so the histotechs must be well versed in the anatomy of many classes of specimens. Tissue processing is automated using a variety of schedules, mainly based on tissue size. We stain and coverslip manually, and the H&E is our routine stain. We perform a variety of special stains, mainly on finfish, but also on mollusks and crustaceans. I am responsible for disease diagnostics for all of the oyster samples collected by DNR (around 2000/year), and am beginning to do more diagnostic work on clams.

Check out the following links to get more flavor of the histology done in my lab.

Also click here to view some stain slide images I have done recently

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/oxford/research/index.html then click on microbiological and histopathological assays .

http://www.sakura-americas.com/histologic/pdf/01_nov.pdf#7 and scroll to page 17.

For recent Maryland oyster disease reports:
http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/commercial/oysters/fallsurvey/FS05report.pdf

http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/commercial/oysters/fallsurvey/FSoysrpt03_04.pdf



	MSH Board Member Background Info Carol B. McCollough, BS, HT/HTL(ASCP) Aquatic Animal Research Pathologist Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fisheries Service Cooperative Oxford Laboratory Oxford, Maryland 21654 410-226-5193 cmccollough at dnr dot state dot md dot us I received a BS in Biology from Washington College in 1983, and did 2 years of graduate work in Marine Biology at the University of Delaware. My first experience in histology was in an undergraduate Cell Biology class where we fixed rose stems, then hand processed and embedded them in paraffin over the course of 2 days. Each student was issued a steel knife wrapped in oiled paper, shown an AO microtome and a BRIEF demonstration of sectioning, then told to make slides. The sad sections produced were then hand stained, flat. We were given finger cots to protect us from the chemicals. For the first eight years of my career I worked in water quality monitoring and fish population monitoring for the State of Maryland. In 1993 I applied for a position in a small DNR marine research lab that was focused on oyster diseases, because I was tired of managing people (not fish) and working in a big office building. I was the only applicant with any histology ‘experience’. I found many things changed from my classroom days! Within two years I was the Histology Laboratory Manager; two years later was certified as an HT; four years later got my HTL; and in 2004 I advanced into the shellfish pathologist position after the previous pathologist retired. I’ve been a member of MSH and NSH since 1994. I’ve given two workshops on marine histology at the Region level. This is my first term on the MSH BOD. COL’s Histology Lab works on oysters, various clams, scallops, finfish, crabs and other crustaceans, sea turtles, marine mammals, and the odd terrestrial critter. We perform our own necropsies on the mollusks, and are responsible for trimming in almost all other samples, so the histotechs must be well versed in the anatomy of many classes of specimens. Tissue processing is automated using a variety of schedules, mainly based on tissue size. We stain and coverslip manually, and the H&E is our routine stain. We perform a variety of special stains, mainly on finfish, but also on mollusks and crustaceans. I am responsible for disease diagnostics for all of the oyster samples collected by DNR (around 2000/year), and am beginning to do more diagnostic work on clams. Check out the following links to get more flavor of the histology done in my lab. Also click here to view some stain slide images I have done recently http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/oxford/research/index.html then click on microbiological and histopathological assays . http://www.sakura-americas.com/histologic/pdf/01_nov.pdf#7 and scroll to page 17. For recent Maryland oyster disease reports: http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/commercial/oysters/fallsurvey/FS05report.pdf http://www.dnr.state.md.us/fisheries/commercial/oysters/fallsurvey/FSoysrpt03_04.pdf

MSH Board Member Background Info