What does a histologist do?

A histologist, also referred to as a histology technician or histotechnician, prepares tissue samples for a pathologist to study. As a histologist, you are specially trained to cut samples from organs or other pieces of tissue and stain them with materials such as dyes, which can aid in microscopic tissue analysis. You place the tissue sample on a slide which a pathologist or other technician places under a microscope to identify and test for disease or illness. Sometimes, you are asked to perform these duties very quickly, such as when a piece of tissue is removed from a patient during surgery, and immediate laboratory analysis is required.