By Andrea Rivera

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 12.22.2009

Hany Massarany, president of Ventana Medical Systems Inc., stood in front of about 90 high school students recently and encouraged them to pursue degrees related to science, medicine or technology so they could one day work for his Oro Valley company.

"It would be great if you are all inspired and motivated to pursue science and to work at Ventana and stay in Tucson," he said in comments on Dec. 9 as part of Ventana Young Scientists Day.

Students from Amphitheater, Canyon del Oro and Ironwood Ridge high schools in the Amphitheater Public Schools district, along with Marana and Mountain View high schools in the Marana Unified School District, attended the event. It took place at Ventana Medical Systems, 1910 E. Innovation Park Drive.

Among other things, Ventana develops and manufactures medical instruments used to diagnose cancer, such as automated devices to prepare tissue samples for microscopic analysis.

Massarany, who also is head of Roche Tissue Diagnostics, told the students that Ventana would like to hire local college graduates.

Those comments and a series of hands-on sessions on Ventana's biotech operations opened the students' eyes to new career possibilities.

Canyon del Oro senior Ellen Thomas said she wasn't ready to decide on a career, but visiting Ventana and seeing what goes on there were helpful to her.

Students rotated through six hands-on activities in which they interacted with Ventana professionals. Chemistry, engineering, pathology and histology (study of tissue structure) were among the topics covered during Young Scientists Day.

They also received a quick lesson on antibodies and antigens.

"I never thought about pathology or any of the fields represented at this company, and it's cool to learn about something different right before you go off to college," Thomas said.

Canyon del Oro senior Claudia Flores said she was certain she'll study biomedical engineering in college, because it integrates her two favorite subjects: math and science. But her experience at Ventana introduced her to other fields of science.

"It was an eye-opening experience overall," Flores said. "We got to see what opportunities we have. I didn't know much about pathology."

Flores and the other students looked at stained slides with pathologist Dr. Robert Taylor.

Together they viewed slides on multiheaded microscopes. The images revealed lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer and bone marrow.

Pathologists study and diagnose diseases using different methods.

"He made it seem interesting. He treats his patients by looking in a microscope," Flores said.

Mountain View High School junior David Martinez wants to be exposed to as many scientific fields as he can before he heads off to college and focuses on becoming a pharmacist.

In a lab at Ventana, he was introduced to histology and watched as technicians removed tissue from a human colon, cut it up and put it on a slide to be stained.

Participating in Young Scientists Day appealed to Martinez's curiosity and appreciation for science.

"I'm good at it and enjoy it," he said. "There's always a way to check your answers, and I like solving problems and finding new solutions."