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(l-r): Drs. Ritu Aneja, Cristina Magi-Galluzzi and Sunil SinghalLeadership from the UAB Heersink School of Medicine, UAB Medicine and the Department of Pathology gathered on Monday, November 11 in the West Pavilion Conference Center to celebrate the launch of UAB Pathology's Digital Pathology Transformation Project. Attendees enjoyed refreshments and remarks from Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair in Pathology, Brenda Carlisle, CEO of UAB Hospital, Program Sponsor, Anupam Agarwal, M.D., Senior Vice President for Medicine, Dean, Heersink School of Medicine, Program Sponsor, and Sunil Singhal, Program Manager.

Joanne Murphy-Ullrich, Ph.D., Professor Emerita, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, has been inducted into UAB's chapter of the National Academy of Inventors. Murphy-Ullrich was recognized at an induction ceremony at the UAB Collat School of Business on October 11. 

The UAB O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center has just announced its latest O'Neal Invests grant awardees, of which two faculty from the Department of Pathology are included. O'Neal Invests funds UAB investigators initiating new cancer-related projects to do key preliminary work to enable competitive extramural applications. 

(l-r): Drs. Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, Pamela Stanley and Girish MelkaniThe UAB Department of Pathology welcomed a world-renowned expert on glycobiology, Pamela Stanley, Ph.D., Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Chair, Professor of Cell Biology, Albert Einstein School of Medicine, to present the ninth annual John Jay Listinsky Lecture in Glycobiology. The lecture, "Glycans Required for Reproduction" was presented on Thursday, November 7, 2024, in the Margaret Cameron Spain Auditorium.

Members from the UAB Department of Pathology gathered on November 5 in the Hill University Center to celebrate a variety of research efforts ongoing in the department in its 2024 Research Retreat. A total of 128 faculty, staff, trainees and students registered to take part in the event. 

The Department of Pathology is pleased to announce some exciting changes to the leadership team of our department's residency programs. Effective January 1, 2025, current Associate Program Director, Rance Chadwick Siniard, M.D., Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine, will serve alongside Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Vice Chair for Education and current Residency Program Director, as Co-Program Director of the UAB Department of Pathology Residency Training Program. In the next academic year, effective July 1, 2025, Siniard will assume the role of Residency Program Director and McCleskey will serve as Associate Program Director.

Drs. Alyssa Lee and Chiamaka UmahFaculty, trainees and staff from the Department of Pathology were busy presenting their latest work at several conferences related to their respective specialties throughout the fall, and several received recognition.

Faculty, staff and trainees from the Department of Pathology gathered on October 6 at Oak Mountain State Park for a Family Fall Festival. Colleagues, alongside their families, enjoyed a day filled with community. The event was hosted by the department's clinical training programs.

Members from the Department of Pathology gathered to celebrate esteemed milestones amongst colleagues on October 16 to recognize awards and distinctions from the past year. The event was held at Cafe Dupont to honor outstanding professional service to UAB and the department.

Jefferson County, Alabama reported nearly 500 overdose deaths in 2023. More than 400 of these were due to opioids, a class of prescription medication used for their pain relief properties. Opioids attach to receptors on nerve cells to block pain messages being sent from the body to the brain. This effect provides relief to patients after surgery or injury, but when used improperly or taken for too long, can become highly addictive.

Dr. C. Ryan MillerC. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Vishnu B. Reddy Translational Research Endowed Professor, Division Director, Neuropathology, has been awarded a 4-year $2.5 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. The grant, “Therapeutic targeting mesenchymal transition in newly diagnosed and recurrent glioblastoma,” will run through August 2028.

The ZTTK SON-Shine Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization founded by Erin Eun-Young Ahn, Ph.D., a professor in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, together with parents of patients with ZTTK syndrome, has been selected by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) to receive an $800,000 five-year grant as part of CZI’s Rare As One project.

The Department of Pathology is thrilled to announce the promotion and tenure of six of our esteemed faculty colleagues for 2024, effective October 1, 2024. 

Greg Davis, M.D., FASCP, Professor and Division Director, Forensic Pathology, became President elect of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) during the organization's annual meeting the first week of September. Davis was sworn in as President-elect for 2024-25 on September 6 in Chicago, having previously served as vice president of this professional group with more than 100,000 members worldwide.

UAB Medicine’s Leadership Development Office welcomed 22 individuals in its ninth cohort of Institute for Leadership in August 2024. Among them are three UAB Pathology faculty: Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Associate Professor, Forensic Pathology and Vice Chair for Education; Shi Wei, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Division Director, Women's Health; and Lalita Samant, Ph.D., Professor, Director, Cancer Biology Ph.D. Theme, Associate Director for Training and Education, O’Neal Cancer Center.

The Department of Pathology is pleased to announce the naming of two of our faculty to endowed chair positions.

Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., is named as the Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair in Pathology in the Heersink School of Medicine. Magi-Galluzzi was previously the C. Bruce Alexander Endowed Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology.

Baleed Vishnu Reddy, M.D., Professor, Laboratory Medicine, is named as the Wyatt and Susan Haskell Endowed Chair for Medical Excellence, as approved the University of Alabama Board of Trustees on September 5.

The University of Alabama at Birmingham Departments of Pathology and Surgery attended this year’s International Society of Uterine Transplantation (ISUTx) 4th State-of-the-art meeting in Gothenburg, Sweden, from September 5-6, 2024. This year’s meeting celebrated the 10th year anniversary of a special and historic event – the birth of the first baby born from a transplanted uterus. The now 10-year-old Vincent opened the meeting and welcomed the clinicians and scientists from around the world who are working hard to promote growth of the field.

The fifth annual Apheresis Awareness Day is recognized on Tuesday, September 17, 2024, as designated by the American Society for Apheresis (ASFA). The purpose is to raise awareness of apheresis medicine and honor the many apheresis practitioners who have dedicated their lives to saving others by using evidence-based practice to advance apheresis medicine.

To better understand the role of apheresis in transfusion medicine, we asked Katayoun Fomani, M.D., an associate professor in the UAB Department of Pathology and program director of the Transfusion Medicine Fellowship, to explain its significance.

Gene P. Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Robert W. Mowry Endowed Professor and Executive Vice Chair, UAB Pathology, received the 2024 ASCP Philip Levine Award for Outstanding Research from the American Society for Clinical Pathology during the organization’s annual meeting September 3-6 in Chicago.

The award honors dedicated ASCP members who have made significant contributions to molecular pathology, immunohematology, and/or immunopathology. Established in 1969, it honors the late Phillip Levine, MD, FASCP, who made many contributions to pathology, including determining the etiology of Rh hemolytic disease of newborns. 

“I am deeply honored to be recognized by my peers,” Siegal said in a release by ASCP. “ASCP is one of my major professional homes. ASCP unites laboratory professionals and pathologists—all of whom play a pivotal role to diagnostic medicine and the patient care team—under one umbrella.” 
Dr. Robert Goulart, outgoing president, ASCP, presents Dr. Gene P. Siegal with the Philip Levin Award for Outstanding Research.

Dr. Margaret Bell receiving the Young Investigator AwardThe UAB Department of Pathology recently funded travel awards to three postdoctoral research fellows, Drs. Joshua Kramer, Margaret Bell and Sini Sunny, who presented their research at national meetings.