Laboratory Exercises in Molecular Pathology is organized by major organ systems and disease type, presenting exercises that distill essential disease-specific information (related to frequency, risk factors, disease manifestations) and a description of disease pathogenesis (molecular and cellular) that is based upon accepted principles from today's literature. Each exercise is illustrated with (1) gross specimens, (2) microscopic histopathology, (3) immunohistochemistry and/or in situ hybridization (when applicable), (4) laboratory techniques to probe the molecular nature of the pathological lesions, and (5) molecular diagnostics (when applicable).

In addition, each exercise contains one or more cases studies to provide students with exposure to the clinical workup of a patient that are based upon physical examination findings, traditional pathological analysis, and state-of-the-art molecular assessment.

The laboratory techniques included emphasize the dissection of molecular and cellular pathogenesis of the disease in question. Hence, students will see examples of laboratory results that illustrate how pathways were elucidated. Further, the sections on molecular diagnostics illustrate how molecular testing exploits what is known about molecular pathogenesis in a specific disease setting.