This year April 20-26 is Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, an annual celebration of medical lab professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in health care and patient advocacy led by the American Society for Clinical Pathology. This week’s theme is Mystery Machine of Diagnostics: Another Case Solved by the Lab.

UAB Medicine has more than 35 independent laboratories with 535 personnel performing over 10 million tests and procedures per year. Each laboratory partners closely with respective medical leaders within the Department of Pathology to ensure quality outcomes. In 2024 alone, there were 76,222 blood products prepared and dispensed by the UAB Blood Bank.

Throughout 2025’s Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, several seminars are being offered for lab professionals to attend. A few of the presenting speakers are from the UAB Department of Pathology. Filipe Cerqueira, Ph.D., is delivering the talk “Bird Flu: The Current Situation” on Tuesday, April 22 at 1:00 p.m. in WPCC-B. Marisa Marques, M.D., is delivering the talk “Let me help you prepare for an A.W.E.S.O.M.E. talk” on Thursday, April 24 at 10:00 a.m. in WPCC-A.  Alexander “Craig” Mackinnon, M.D., Ph.D., is delivering the talk “Challenges Correlating Discordant Molecular and Histological Findings in Surgical Pathology” on Friday, April 25 at 10:00 a.m. in the WPCC Boardroom.

The Department of Pathology is grateful to all the UAB laboratory staff for the integral role they play and their hard work and dedication to the field and to UAB.