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What Is a Cadaver Lab? Inside GCU’s Human Cadaver Facility

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Read time 5 minutes

GCE Editorial Team

Published on Aug 14, 2025

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GCE Editorial Team

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Approved and verified accurate by the Associate Dean of the College of Natural Sciences on July 29, 2025.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.

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How Cadaver Labs Can Help Prepare You To Become a Doctor

GCU students can benefit from having a hands-on experience in both their teaching lab and in their human dissection lab. Typically, aspiring doctors do not begin working in a human cadaver lab until they are in medical school.

Related Article: How To Prepare for Medical School

The cadaver dissection lab is one of GCU's many Lopes Live Labs. There are multiple advantages to starting work in human dissection at the cadaver lab, including the following:

Bridging Theoretical Concepts With Applied Experience

Working in the human anatomy lab allows students to take what they’ve been taught in classes and apply it to an immersive, hands-on environment. In a class, you’ll have opportunities to examine the circulatory system with diagrams and medical illustrations, for example. Then, in the anatomy lab, you’ll be able to actually see the structures of the circulatory system and consider how it works within the human body.

Familiarity With Clinical Procedures

Lab work provides invaluable aid in helping students become more accustomed to standard clinical procedures. In the human anatomy lab, students are required to follow strict safety protocols, including using personal protective equipment (PPE) like gloves, following proper hand-washing procedures and disinfecting all equipment and surfaces when finished with the dissection. The more students practice these procedures, the more likely they may be to adhere to them properly.

Preparing for Surgical Careers

Some students who enroll in a pre-medicine program may have hopes of pursuing a career as a surgeon. For these students in particular, the human anatomy lab provides essential experience.

During a surgeon’s career, they are required to cut into the human body countless times. It’s necessary to first do so on a human cadaver rather than a living person. When working on a human cadaver, making a mistake is an opportunity for learning, whereas mistakes made on a living human could be harmful or even deadly.