Kajaal Prasad is a Senior Scientist in Dissection at our Nepean laboratory, playing a key role in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer patients. She’s currently developing a training program to teach the next generation of dissection scientists.

What do you do and why does it matter?

I work as a Senior Sci­en­tist in Dis­sec­tion with­in Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy (AP), where I exam­ine and dis­sect sur­gi­cal spec­i­mens so they can be processed for micro­scop­ic diag­no­sis. Each spec­i­men rep­re­sents a patient wait­ing for answers, and my role helps ensure the infor­ma­tion pathol­o­gists need, such as tumour size, mar­gins and lymph nodes, is accu­rate­ly record­ed for diag­no­sis and treat­ment planning.

Dis­sec­tion is an essen­tial part of the diag­nos­tic process, bridg­ing surgery and pathol­o­gy. Get­ting it right has a direct impact on patient outcomes.

I am also NSW Health Pathology’s first Clin­i­cal Sci­en­tif­ic Trainee in Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy, under­tak­ing the RCPA Fel­low­ship Fac­ul­ty of Sci­ence and com­plet­ing my PhD at West­ern Syd­ney University.

My research focus­es on advanc­ing dis­sec­tion train­ing meth­ods using 3D print­ing, aim­ing to enhance train­ing effec­tive­ness and sup­port skill devel­op­ment in dis­sec­tion across the field.

I’m work­ing in a full-time fund­ed posi­tion until mid-Decem­ber, while also under­tak­ing a new project focus­ing on devel­op­ing a NSWHP statewide struc­tured and con­sis­tent train­ing pro­gram for dis­sec­tion sci­en­tists and tech­ni­cal offi­cers ini­tial­ly in sim­ple to non-com­plex cut-up.

This is a col­lab­o­ra­tion between the Sci­en­tif­ic & Tech­ni­cal port­fo­lio, work­ing with our Sci­en­tif­ic Skills Devel­op­ment Coor­di­na­tor Carey-Anne Evans, and the Anatom­i­cal Pathol­o­gy Clin­i­cal Stream. This statewide train­ing ini­tia­tive aligns close­ly with my research and Fel­low­ship training.

The goal is to strength­en skills, build con­sis­ten­cy and sup­port pro­fes­sion­al growth across the state. It’s been excit­ing to com­bine my clin­i­cal back­ground with my pas­sion for edu­ca­tion and help shape the future of our workforce.

Tell us about your sci­en­tif­ic career path and what inspired you to work in pathology?

I’ve always been inter­est­ed in the human body and the way struc­ture and dis­ease con­nect. Ear­ly on, I taught anato­my at a ter­tiary lev­el, and that expe­ri­ence real­ly sparked my love for teach­ing and for explor­ing how peo­ple learn com­plex science.

I enjoyed help­ing stu­dents see how the body fits togeth­er and realised how much I loved com­bin­ing anato­my, edu­ca­tion and prac­ti­cal application.

That pas­sion nat­u­ral­ly evolved into a career in anatom­i­cal pathol­o­gy, where anato­my meets diag­nos­tics. I start­ed in his­tol­ogy and moved into dis­sec­tion— the part of pathol­o­gy where we exam­ine sur­gi­cal spec­i­mens before they go under the micro­scope. It’s a role that brings togeth­er every­thing I enjoy: anato­my, clin­i­cal rea­son­ing and hands-on tech­ni­cal skill.

Now, I get to bring it all full cir­cle. I’ve stepped into devel­op­ing train­ing and edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams for dis­sec­tion sci­en­tists across NSW, and I’m also com­plet­ing a PhD focused on improv­ing hands on- dis­sec­tion train­ing using inno­v­a­tive tools like 3D-print­ed mod­els. It’s reward­ing to see how my ear­ly expe­ri­ence teach­ing anato­my has shaped the way I approach train­ing and work­force devel­op­ment in pathol­o­gy today.

A proud moment or inter­est­ing case?

One of the most mean­ing­ful projects I’ve worked on is my cur­rent PhD research, where I’m devel­op­ing high-fideli­ty 3D-print­ed breast can­cer mod­els for sur­gi­cal dis­sec­tion train­ing. These repli­cas are designed to close­ly mim­ic real pathol­o­gy spec­i­mens, includ­ing tumour tex­ture, mar­gins and tis­sue lay­ers, allow­ing trainees to prac­tise real­is­tic dis­sec­tion tech­niques before han­dling clin­i­cal cases.

The idea for this project came from my expe­ri­ence train­ing junior reg­is­trars and sci­en­tists in com­plex dis­sec­tion. It became clear there was a sig­nif­i­cant gap between class­room learn­ing and hands-on prac­tice at the cut-up bench. Access to suit­able train­ing spec­i­mens is lim­it­ed, and this cre­ates chal­lenges in devel­op­ing key skills such as iden­ti­fy­ing breast lesions, which is para­mount in breast can­cer cases.

This research aims to bridge that gap by pro­vid­ing a safe, repro­ducible and anatom­i­cal­ly accu­rate way to learn, pri­or to work­ing on patient samples.

I’m also con­tribut­ing to a statewide train­ing ini­tia­tive for dis­sec­tion sci­en­tists, devel­op­ing a struc­tured path­way that hasn’t exist­ed before. It’s reward­ing to help strength­en our work­force and sup­port the next gen­er­a­tion of pathol­o­gy professionals.

What do you like to do to unwind out­side of work?

Out­side of pathol­o­gy, I like to keep life bal­anced and sim­ple. I enjoy spend­ing time with my fam­i­ly, explor­ing new learn­ing projects, and doing any­thing cre­ative — from design to plan­ning new ideas.

I also love a qui­et cof­fee moment and catch­ing up with friends. It’s impor­tant to me to make space for things that bring joy and per­spec­tive out­side of science.

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