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My laboratory receives tissue specimens from patients, removed during an operation, a simple procedure at the GP, or from a post-mortem. The samples are sent to the laboratory in a chemical called a fixing agent, such as formaldehyde.  
Specimens are dissected by Biomedical Scientists or consultant Histopathologists. They are then processed with a number of chemicals. This makes the tissue hard so they can be placed into paraffin wax blocks.

Thin slices are then cut and stained with dyes so they can be looked at under the microscope. Further staining techniques may be requested by the doctors to identify specific cancers, bacteria, proteins etc.

I start at 8am and finish at 4.30pm , I usually put slides with tissue sections on, onto an automated staining machine for immunohistochemical staining. This staining uses antibodies to identify different tumour cells and types. This helps the oncologists (cancer doctors) decide the treatments for the patients.

As a senior scientist i spend alot of the day doing specialist staining techniques, and checking the tissue sections that have been cut and stained under the microscope.

In the afternoons i spend around two hours dissecting specimens for processing. Specimens ranging from biopsies to large pieces of skins. I also prepare specimens for the consultants dissection, slicing them open and painting them.