The course, which is offered by the Cellular and Molecular Medicine graduate program, in collaboration the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, consists of a 3-hour weekly lecture on the topics outlined in the schedule.

Graduate students in medical schools or in biology-related fields commonly take on research projects that deal with pathological concepts. The formulation of a research project - something that is expected to be the original elaboration of a Ph.D. student - may be misguided due to unawareness of its relevance to actual disease if the student does not have a medical background. A great deal of sophistication is applied to the research at hand but often, it is apparent that the "big picture", which is based on fundamental aspects of normal or pathological anatomical or microscopic anatomy, are missing from the student's background. 

For example, it can happen that a student studying signal transduction underpinning cardiomyocyte hypertrophy may not have the perspective given by the knowledge of fundamental aspects of anatomical cardiac hypertrophy and its natural history, the relevance of other myocardial tissue components, or even the basic histology of the myocardium and the ways that are available for its study. 

This course is envisioned as providing fundamental concepts on the basis of disease as viewed from a general pathology perspective.  It is, therefore, distinct from graduate courses in Pathology that deal with the detailed pathogenesis of specific clinical entities.

CMM 5001 - The Pathological Basis of Disease Course - Winter 2026

Coordinator: 

Office coordinator:

• Ms. Chloe Benson ([email protected]) - Pathology and Laboratory Medicine - (613) 562 5422

Course begins January 14th, 2026 and ends April 8th, 2026 – Three-hour long lectures on Wednesdays

Teaching support: 

• Eric Labelle ([email protected]): 613 562 5800 Ext 8332

Students are evaluated at the end of the course through answers to a single, take-home question. The answer to the questions should be in an essay format of at least three single-sided pages in length of regularly typed text (8.5 x 11" paper, 0.75 to 1" margins, 10-12 pitch) excluding figures, tables and bibliographic references. References to the literature should be mainly of peer review type. Minimal use of textbooks and Internet material is expected.

You must not copy and paste material because this can result in plagiarism, which results in mandatory intervention by the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies.  Pictures or drawings appropriately referenced are acceptable.

Ensure that you register attendance to each lecture by signing in the attendance list provided by the professor or made up during the lecture.  The list should be handed in to the professor at the end of the lecture.  Attendances that are below 75% would be deemed insufficient.

General bibliography

The type of course that you are taken is best grounded in classic General Pathology textbooks.

• Robbins Basic Pathology by Ramzi S. Cotran, Stanley L. Robbins, Vinay Kumar , , 7th Edition» W.B. Saunders Company | ISBN: 0721692745
• Cells, Tissues, and Disease: Principles of General Pathology by Guido Majno and Isabelle Joris, 2nd ed, 1005 pp, ISBN 0-19-514090-7, New York, NY, Oxford University Press, 2004.
• Essential Pathology Emanuel Rubin Rubin Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 3rd Edition ISBN: 0-7817-2395-7

A search for histology textbooks in the internet will retrieve many excellent books, some of which come or are CDs with microscopic images of cells and tissues.