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by Christina Crowe

Kenneth “Ken” Fallon, M.D., Associate Professor, will retire from his position in the Division of Neuropathology at the same institution where he did his fellowship in this unique specialty, effective August 31, 2023.

Fallon’s career was highlighted by his love of teaching trainees, he says.

“Overall, it has been the opportunity to participate in resident/fellow education that I have found to be the most rewarding experience throughout my time here at UAB,” Fallon says. “I am fortunate to have had the chance to provide teaching sessions to, to exchange ideas with, and most importantly, to listen to all of our residents and fellows throughout the years. Their unfailing collegiality has meant a lot to me, and I am hopeful that all of the teaching has provided some benefit to them.”

by Christina Crowe

The UAB Department of Pathology is pleased to announce the appointment of Selvarangan Ponnazhagan, Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Endowed Professor in Experimental Cancer Therapeutics, as interim Vice Chair for Research for the Department of Pathology, effective September 1, 2023. Ponnazhagan (Pons) takes over the role from Rakesh Patel, Ph.D., who moved into the role of Division Director, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, effective July 1.

Ponnazhagan has been a faculty member in Pathology since 1999. His research, focused on breast and prostate cancers, has been supported by industry, the UAB O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the NIH, including a recent R01 award entitled, “Mechanisms and Therapeutic Targeting of Osteoimmune Functions of RANKL in Breast Cancer.”
At UAB Ponnazhagan is a senior scientist with the Cystic Fibrosis Research Center, the Center for Biophysical Sciences and Engineering, the Comprehensive Diabetes Center, the Nephrology Research and Training Center, the Comprehensive Arthritis, Musculoskeletal, Bone and Autoimmunity Center, the Global Center for Craniofacial, Oral and Dental Disorders, and the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. He is co-director of the Pathobiology, Pharmacology, and Physiology (P3), one of eight graduate program themes within the UAB Graduate Biomedical Sciences Doctoral Training Program.

by Christina Crowe

Yabing Chen, Ph.D., the Jay M. McDonald Endowed Chair in Laboratory Medicine and Vice Chair of Faculty Development and Education, has received two R01 awards amounting to more than $5 million to bolster her research program on vascular aging and dementia.

With an overarching goal to understand vascular health in depth, Chen and her team delve into exploring the role of smooth muscle cell  phenotypic modulation and reprogramming, and their links to vascular diseases and aging. The first R01, a $2.2 million award from the National Institute on Aging, funds their research on the “Novel Regulation of Vascular Dementia”. The second R01, a $2.86 million award from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, funds their cardiovascular research on “Protein Arginine Methylation in Vascular Smooth Cell Phenotypic Modulation and Calcification.” Both grants will run through 2027.

Together, these grants support Chen’s ambitious goal of better understanding vascular health to potentially identify a target for diagnosis and drug discovery—research she has dedicated her career to.

“We’re trying to understand how the vascular cells function and change during the aging process,” Chen says. “Our research program investigates what controls the regulation of the vascular cell function and how this impacts the development of cardiovascular disease and vascular dementia.”

by Christina Crowe

Dario Vitturi, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, has received grant funding to support his project “Kynurenine-dependent redox signaling at the interface between innate and adaptive immunity.” The five year, $2.82 million R01 is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID).

Upon recognizing the presence of bacterial or viral components, our cells activate potent inflammatory responses with the objective of removing the pathogenic threat. However, our immune system must precisely orchestrate these actions in order to minimize collateral tissue injury and develop a targeted response that will enable faster threat clearance upon pathogen re-exposure. Immune and non-immune cells use a variety of mechanisms to attain this delicate balance, with the upregulation of tryptophan metabolism via the kynurenine pathway recently coming into focus as an important immunosuppressive strategy.

by Hannah Buckelew

On August 31, 2023, the Department of Pathology welcomes two new faculty members to the Division of Anatomic Pathology.

Mustafa Goksel, M.D., joins the department as assistant professor, Anatomic Pathology. Dr. Goksel was previously a GU fellow at the Indiana University Health Pathology Laboratory in Indianapolis, Indiana.

by Christina Crowe

On July 26, 2023, the UAB Department of Pathology welcomed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s Crisis + Emergency Risk Communications team to host a day-long training session on crisis communications. The event was organized by the UAB Pathology communications team, Christina Crowe, Director, and Hannah Buckelew, Specialist, and included communications and administrative leaders from across campus, including the Heersink School of Medicine, the University Relations team, UAB Medicine communications teams, and Employee Assistance Counseling Center, among others.

by Hannah Buckelew

On August 1, 2023, the Department of Pathology welcomes a new faculty member to the Division of Neuropathology.

Andrea Comba, Ph.D., joins the department as assistant professor, Neuropathology. Dr. Comba was previously a research investigator at the University of Michigan School of Medicine’s Department of Neurosurgery in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

by Hannah Buckelew

On July 31, 2023, the Department of Pathology welcomes a new faculty member to the Division of Women’s Health.

Hui Zhang, M.D., joins the department as assistant professor, Women’s Health. Zhang was previously a gynecologic/surgical pathology fellow and clinical instructor at Loyola University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois.

by Hannah Buckelew

On August 1, 2023, the Department of Pathology welcomes a new faculty member to the Division of Anatomic Pathology.

Abdullah Osme, M.D., joins the department as assistant professor, Anatomic Pathology. Osme previously served as a gastrointestinal and hepatic pathology fellow at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

by Hannah Buckelew

Marisa Marques, M.D., Professor, Laboratory Medicine, Director, Stem Cell Facility, Callahan Eye Hospital Lab, will retire July 31, 2023, after 30 years of service at UAB.

A native of Brazil, Marques received her medical degree from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1983 and completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the same institution in 1985. She moved to the United States with her husband in 1986 to become a visiting fellow at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Fogarty International’s Laboratory of Clinical Investigation in Bethesda, Maryland, until 1988 when she joined Beth Israel Hospital’s Division of Infectious Disease at Harvard Medical School in Boston as a research fellow. In 1992, she completed an additional research fellowship in the Channing Laboratory at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

by Christina Crowe

The UAB Department of Pathology gathered for a reception to honor outgoing chair Dr. George Netto, Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair. Netto, M.D., will join the University of Pennsylvania as chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, effective July 31, 2023. The UAB Heersink School of Medicine hosted the event in his honor on Thursday, July 13. Department faculty, staff, trainees and colleagues and friends from around UAB joined to recognize Netto's contributions during his seven years as chair. 

by Christina Crowe

UAB Pathology and the Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics are pleased to announce a new next-generation sequencing (NGS) comprehensive genomic profiling (CGP) Solid500 test which identifies and delivers genomic signatures for tumor mutation. The test also supports guideline-based therapy decisions and identifies genetic markers to help organize and differentiate clinical trial enrollment for various tumor treatments.

This FDA-cleared test for solid tumor has been performed in the Clinical Molecular Diagnostics Laboratory, effective March 2, 2023. It targets 505 genes important in driving cancer—genes that would have mutations that would be significant in the growth and spread of cancer. It typically has a turnaround time of seven days from receipt of the sample results, and eliminates the need for tests to be sent out to reference labs.

“By having a big, comprehensive panel like this we span a spectrum of diseases that are all a form of solid tumors, so we can run one assay for many different diseases,” says Alexander “Craig” Mackinnon, M.D., Ph.D., GDB Division Director. This test represents about a tenfold increase in the number of genes we have the ability to test for, he says.

by Christina Crowe

Joseph L. Messina, Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, will retire July 1, 2023, after 29 years of service at UAB.

Messina received his Bachelor of Arts in a combined degree of Biology/Chemistry/Psychology/and Anthropology from Dartmouth College in 1977. He then obtained his Ph.D. in 1982 from the Department of Physiology, University of Michigan Medical School, working in the laboratory of the former Dr. Jack Kostyo. From 1982 to 1985, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of the former Dr. Joseph Larner, Department of Pharmacology, in the University of Virginia School of Medicine.

This funding will be used to research multiple health conditions, including alcohol-related liver disease, Alzheimer’s disease, breast cancer, heart failure, inflammatory bowel disease and Zhu-Tokita-Takenouchi-Kim syndrome.Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Department of Pathology recently received multiple R01 grants from the National Institutes of Health totaling more than $15 million in research funding.

by Hannah Buckelew

Rajasekaran Namakkal-Soorappan, Ph.D., an associate professor in the Department of Pathology’s Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, has been awarded a Transformative Project Award from the American Heart Association for his project, “Atrial Remodeling Precedes Ventricular Dysfunction in Proteotoxic Cardiac Disease.” This $300,000 award will run for three years, through 2026.

by Christina Crowe

Rakesh Patel, Ph.D., Director, Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology, has been selected as the Chair of the NIH Training and Workforce Development Study Section starting in October 2023. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) Division of Training, Workforce Development, and Diversity (TWD) study sections review training grant applications (including graduate and medical scientist training (MSTP) programs) designed to foster the training and development of a strong and diverse biomedical research workforce.

Dr. Patel's appointment on the study section as a chartered member is for a two-year term starting October 1, 2023.

UAB Pathology is proud to welcome four new fellows into the department this summer, joining the five UAB residents or existing fellows who are staying on to complete a fellowship with us. 

Graduating Fellows and their new roles:

Forensic Pathology: Ben Daggett, M.D., Charlotte Mecklenberg Medical Examiner, Charlotte, NC
GI Pathology: Christine Pesoli, M.D., Advanced Pathology Solutions, Little Rock, AR
Hematopathology: Gabe Collins, D.O, Community Pathology Laboratory, Cookeville, TN
Molecular Genetic Pathology: Bushra Nazir, M.D., Assistant Professor, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA
Surgical Pathology: Anne Prater, D.O., North Shore Pathologists, Appleton, WI
Women's Health: Junlin Zhang, M.D., Ph.D., Pathology Group of Louisiana, Baton Rouge, LA

The UAB Department of Pathology is incredibly proud of the accomplishments of these skilled young pathologists and wishes them all the best in their future endeavors.

We are excited to welcome the incoming class of fellows to UAB Pathology, effective July 1, 2023:
Michael Williams, M.D. - Forensic Pathology
Frances Gomez Gonzalez – GI/GU Pathology (New to UAB)
Sarah DePew, D.O.. - Hematopathology
Geoff Herndon, D.O. - Hematopathology
Ammoura Ibrahim, M.D. - Molecular Genetic Pathology (New to UAB)
Brandon Maveal, M.D. - Neuropathology
Sarah Anderson, D.O. – Surgical Pathology
Daniel Jackson, M.D. – Surgical Pathology (New to UAB)
Gangandeep Kaur, M.D. — Women's Health (New to UAB)

by Christina Crowe

The UAB Department of Pathology is proud to announce the appointment of Neda Wick, M.D., as an assistant professor in the Division of Neuropathology, led by division director C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D., Vishnu B. Reddy Translational Research Endowed Professor, effective July 1. Dr. Wick, with her extensive training and experience in neuropathology, is poised to make significant contributions to the department's research and educational endeavors.

Dr. Wick obtained her Doctor of Medicine degree with a Distinction in Medical Education from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Prior to that, she completed her Bachelor of Science in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, with a minor in Comparative Literature, at the University of California, Davis. She pursued her Residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the UT Southwestern Medical Center, where she also served as the Chair of the UT Southwestern Chief Resident Council and Chief Resident in the Department of Pathology.

by Hannah Buckelew

The UAB Department of Pathology gathered for an outgoing reception for our residents, fellows, and trainees on June 2. Department faculty, staff, residents and fellows came together to celebrate at the Fennec, adjacent to downtown Birmingham, with dinner and an awards ceremony.

A welcome by Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Director of the Pathology Residency Program, was followed by faculty awards presented by outgoing Chief Residents Sarah Anderson, D.O., and Sarah DePew, D.O. The Leonard H. Robinson Award for Resident Education in Anatomic Pathology was presented to Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., C. Bruce Alexander Endowed Professor, Division Director, Anatomic Pathology. The Shu T. Huang Award for Excellence in Laboratory Medicine Education was given to Marisa Marques, M.D, Professor, Laboratory Medicine, Director, Blood Bank.

by Hannah Buckelew

Joanne Murphy-Ullrich, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, will retire at the beginning of next month, July 1, 2023, after 37 years of service at UAB.

Murphy-Ullrich received her bachelor of science in medical technology from Marquette University and worked as a medical technologist in the University of Wisconsin Hospital’s Blood Bank before completing her Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin in pathology in 1983. From 1983-1986, she was a post-doctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Deane Mosher in the Departments of Medicine and Physiological Chemistry. In 1986, Murphy-Ullrich came to UAB’s Department of Biochemistry where she served as senior research associate, research instructor, and research assistant professor before joining the UAB Department of Pathology as assistant professor in 1991. In 1995, she was promoted to associate professor, and in 2000, she was named professor. She had secondary appointments in the Departments of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences and Cell Developmental and Integrative Biology.