Mission of Laboratory Medicine

The Department of Laboratory Medicine is devoted to the study of the molecular and cellular constituents of blood and other body fluids. Our work is crucial to the diagnosis and management of illness and the investigation of the mechanisms and pathogenesis of disease.

Patient Care

The Department carries out its patient care mission by assuming responsibility for the clinical laboratories. As well as providing laboratory testing for Yale-New Haven Hospital, it serves as a regional reference laboratory for New England and as a national reference laboratory for various advanced diagnostic assays. Approximately eight million tests are performed each year. Committed to providing a broad array of state-of-the-art, cost-effective testing, Laboratory Medicine faculty regularly translate developing technology into routine practice, both as new tests and as better versions of existing tests.

Research

Our faculty conduct basic and applied research in a broad range of areas, including biomedical engineering, stem cell biology, immunology, infectious diseases, structural biology, and genetics. In addition to the training of graduate and post-doctoral students in individual laboratories, the department carries out post-doctoral research training of MDs, MD/PhDs and PhDs. These activities are partly supported by NIH-sponsored pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training programs in Molecular Virology and Immunohematology with participating faculty from both Laboratory Medicine and a number of other basic science and bridge departments. The department also houses the NIH-sponsored Yale Center of Excellence in Molecular Hematology and offers Core Laboratory Facilities within the Cancer Center for Immune Monitoring and Cell Therapy, and within the institution as a whole for Flow Cytometry and Gnotobiotic Biology.

Education

Teaching is also central to our mission. The department houses a residency training program recognized as among the best in the country and offers core courses to students in the School of Medicine. Our faculty have received numerous accolades for their excellence in teaching. Clinical Pathology residency training is provided for residents in straight Laboratory Medicine and as part of an integrated anatomic and clinical pathology residency training program in cooperation with the Department of Pathology. The programs are recognized as among the best in the country, and their graduates are highly successful in both academic and clinical practice. Excellent subspecialty fellowship training in Transfusion Medicine, Medical Microbiology, Molecular Genetic Pathology and Hematopathology is also provided. The department teaches two major required courses in the Medical School, Medical Microbiology and Introduction to Laboratory Medicine, as well as a fourth-year elective in Laboratory Medicine and the Laboratory Medicine teaching within the Core Medicine Clerkship. In the fifteen years since its inception, Laboratory Medicine faculty have won the Bohmfalk Award on five occasions, an honor bestowed annually by the medical student body to the most outstanding teacher.