Jobs in a veterinary diagnostic laboratory include titles such as a research assistant, laboratory aide, and animal medical technologist. As a lab assistant, your focus is on identifying pathogenic bacteria. You collect a sample, run a specified test or experiment, and record your results. Your duties and responsibilities include assisting in ongoing research initiatives as well as maintaining the lab and its inventory. Additionally, you support research efforts by maintaining databases and systems. By contrast, as an animal medical technologist, it is your job to maintain, calibrate, and confirm correct functioning of equipment and instruments, and to confirm the validity of test results through document review and trend analyses.