Flaherty Comparative Oncology Laboratory

The Flaherty Comparative Oncology Laboratory (FCOL) is the new translational research laboratory supporting the DACC, Bobst Hospital and The Animal Medical Center. This state-of-the-art laboratory within The AMC provides support for the doctors of the DACC by performing investigations in a wide variety of areas. For example, a robotic arm machine performs special studies on tumor samples for both diagnosis and/or prognosis (i.e. how well we expect a patient with a tumor will do after appropriate therapy). We are currently the only site in the world performing prognostic panels on the tumors of dogs with mast cell tumor or lymphoma.

In addition, the FCOL supports the DACC by processing blood samples from patients participating in the various DNA vaccine studies in order to determine if the correct immune response is taking place. The FCOL recently acquired a state-of-the-art five color flow cytometer in order to better understand the immune responses of pets receiving various vaccines against cancer.

There are presently only a handful of laboratories with this level of expertise in veterinary medicine throughout the world.