Pathology is the study of disease and injury. The word pathology also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatment, the term is often used in a narrower fashion to refer to processes and tests that fall within the contemporary medical field of "general pathology", an area that includes a number of distinct but inter-related medical specialties that diagnose disease, mostly through analysis of tissue and human cell samples. Idiomatically, "a pathology" may also refer to the predicted or actual progression of particular diseases, and the affix pathy is sometimes used to indicate a state of disease in cases of both physical ailment and psychological conditions. A physician practicing pathology is called a pathologist.
Anatomical pathology (Commonwealth) or anatomic pathology (U.S.) is a medical specialty that is concerned with the diagnosis of disease based on the macroscopic, microscopic, biochemical, immunologic and molecular examination of organs and tissues. Over the 20th century, surgical pathology has evolved tremendously: from historical examination of whole bodies (autopsy) to a more modernized practice, centered on the diagnosis and prognosis of cancer to guide treatment decision-making in oncology. Its modern founder was the Italian scientist Giovanni Battista Morgagni from Forlì.
Neuropathology is the study of disease of nervous system tissue, usually in the form of either small surgical biopsies or whole-body autopsies. Neuropathologists usually work in a department of anatomic pathology, but work closely with the clinical disciplines of neurology, and neurosurgery, which often depend on neuropathology for a diagnosis. Neuropathology also relates to forensic pathology because brain disease or brain injury can be related to cause of death. Neuropathology should not be confused with neuropathy, which refers to disorders of the nerves themselves rather than the tissues. In neuropathology, the branches of the specializations of nervous system as well as the tissues come together into one field of study.
Ernest William Goodpasture was an American pathologist and physician. Goodpasture advanced the scientific understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases, parasitism, and a variety of rickettsial and viral infections. Together with colleagues at Vanderbilt University, he invented methods for growing viruses and rickettsiae in chicken embryos and fertilized chicken eggs. This enabled the development of vaccines against influenza, chicken pox, smallpox, yellow fever, typhus, Rocky mountain spotted fever, and other diseases. He also described Goodpasture syndrome.
William Henry Welch was an American physician, pathologist, bacteriologist, and medical-school administrator. He was one of the "Big Four" founding professors at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. He was the first dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and was also the founder of the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the first school of public health in the country. Welch was more known for his cogent summations of current scientific work, than his own scientific research. The Johns Hopkins medical school library is also named after Welch. In his lifetime, he was called the "Dean of American Medicine" and received various awards and honors throughout his lifetime and posthumously.
Hubertus Strughold was a German-born physiologist, medical researcher and war criminal. Beginning in 1935 he served as chief of aeromedical research for Hermann Göring's Ministry of Aviation and later held the same position with the German Luftwaffe throughout World War II. In 1947 he was brought to the United States as part of Operation Paperclip and went on to serve in a number of high-level scientific posts with the US Air Force and NASA.
Myrtelle May Moore Canavan was an American physician and medical researcher. She was one of the first female pathologists and is best known for publishing a description of Canavan disease in 1931.
Eugene Lindsay Opie was an American physician and pathologist who conducted research on the causes, transmission, and diagnosis of tuberculosis and on immunization against the disease. He served as professor of pathology at several U.S. medical schools and as Dean of the Washington University School of Medicine.
John Quinn Trojanowski was an American academic research neuroscientist specializing in neurodegeneration. He and his partner, Virginia Man-Yee Lee, MBA, Ph.D., are noted for identifying the roles of three proteins in neurodegenerative diseases: tau in Alzheimer's disease, alpha-synuclein in Parkinson's disease, and TDP-43 in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration.
Hugo Spatz was a German neuropathologist. In 1937, he was appointed director of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research. He was a member of the Nazi Party, and admitted to knowingly performing much of his controversial research on the brains of executed prisoners. Along with Julius Hallervorden, he is credited with the discovery of Hallervorden-Spatz syndrome. Hugo Spatz's Oberarzt, 1937–1939, Richard Lindenberg, became chief neuropathologist of the State of Maryland.
Francis Curtis Dohan Jr. was an American physician and neuropathologist. He was the son of F. Curtis Dohan.
Gabriel Steiner was a German-American neurologist known for his research of multiple sclerosis. In his studies, he postulated a link between multiple sclerosis and certain forms of spirochetes.
Joseph Godwin Greenfield, was an early neuropathologist. He created, with 28 founding members, the neuropathological club, which would eventually become the British Neuropathological Society. Greenfield served as pathologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery at Queen Square.
Daniel Jay Brat is an American neuropathologist and brain tumor investigator. He is the Magerstadt Professor and Chair of Pathology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and Northwestern Memorial Healthcare.
Donald L. Price (1935-2023) was an American neuropathologist and professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His research aimed to understand the molecular basis of neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's disease. Price received a number of awards for his work and served as the President of both the American Association of Neuropathologists and the Society for Neuroscience.
Lucy Balian Rorke-Adams is an American pediatric neuropathologist who served as president of the American Association of Neuropathologists in 1982. She spent 50 years at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She was the first and only female president of Philadelphia General Hospital and president of the PGH medical staff (1973–1975). She also served as president of the medical staff at CHOP (1986-1988) and as acting chair of pathology at CHOP (1995-2001). She was a professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania beginning in 1970, becoming clinical professor of pathology as of 1979.
Elizabeth Quarrier Banker was a neurologist known for her work in pediatric neuropathology. In 1983, she became the first woman to win the Hower Award of the Child Neurology Society.
Helena E. Riggs was an American neuropathologist at Philadelphia General Hospital and the University of Pennsylvania. In 1948, she was one of the first two neuropathologists to be certified by the American Board of Pathology, and in 1950 she served as the first woman President of the Philadelphia Neurological Society. The Diagnostic Slide Session O.T. Bailey-Helena Riggs Award is given in her honor by the American Association of Neuropathologists.
Kevin A. Roth is an American neuropathologist and former Chair of Pathology at Columbia University and the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He was the President of the American Society for Investigative Pathology from 2014-2015, and performed research for over three decades on apoptotic cell death in neural development, neurodegenerative disease, and tumors of the nervous system.
