Clinical Laboratory Techniques are based on established scientific principles involving biology, chemistry, and physics, and encompass all aspects of the clinical laboratory from testing the amount of cholesterol in your blood to analyzing your DNA to growing microscopic organisms that may be causing an infection. Such methods are much like the recipes in a cookbook, defining the procedures or processes that are used to test biological samples for particular analytes or substances. The laboratory scientist follows step-by-step procedures until the end product, a test result, is achieved. The Medical Laboratory Technicians use microscopes, cell counters, and other high-tech, computer-operated laboratory equipment. After testing and examining the samples, they analyze the results and relay them to the physicians. Those test results help doctors determine the right treatments for patients — and occasionally lead to extraordinary breakthroughs.