Explore UAB

Written by Mary Ashley Canevaro
Craig Maynard, Ph.D.Craig Maynard, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pathology, is the latest winner of the School of Medicine’s Featured Discovery. This initiative celebrates important research from School of Medicine faculty members.

Maynard and his team were recently published in PNAS for their study “ICOS ligand and IL-10 synergize to promote host–microbiota mutualism.”

In the study, Maynard and his team, including first author Ashley Landuyt, Ph.D., former student in the Immunology Theme of the Graduate Biomedical Science (GBS) program, compared normal mice with mice devoid of the T cell co-stimulatory protein ICOSL, to help determine the role of this protein in the regulation of immune responses in the intestine.

Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., UAB Distinguished Professor, Robert W. Mowry Endowed Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Department of Pathology, has been elected vice president of the International Society of Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. He will automatically ascend to the presidency of the organization in two years.

In April 2021, Siegal was appointed Distinguished Professor by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees, the first such honor for a pathologist at UAB.

“I am highly moved that my colleagues around the world have honored me in this way with this opportunity to further serve them at this time in my life," Siegal said.

Sooryanarayana Varambally, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Society of American Asian Scientists in Cancer Research (SAASCR) at this year's American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) annual meeting, held virtually in  May 17-21.

Varambally is Director of Integrative Translational Oncologic Pathology research and Co-director of the Graduate Biomedical Sciences program in Cancer Biology, and a scientist with the O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Informatics Institute, and the Center for Clinical and Translational Science. The award recognizes, "his seminal contributions to the field of cancer research."

The Society of American Asian Scientists in Cancer Research is a nonprofit organization of more than 5,000 scientists from Asia who are working in the U.S. and Canada in the field of cancer research.

Rajeev Samant, Ph.D., is a Professor in the division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology, and a member of the Department of Pathology's Diversity Task Force. This group meets regularly and includes representatives from around the department, including faculty, staff, and trainees. Here, Dr. Samant answers some questions about his experiences with diversity.

The Dean's Excellence Awards are annual honors awarded to select UAB School of Medicine faculty for excellence in the areas of teaching, service, research, mentorship, and diversity enhancement. Awardees are chosen through a peer-review process and facilitated by a member of the dean's leadership team.

In 2021 the school recognized 18 faculty for their outstanding achievements, and the UAB Department of Pathology is excited to have four winners this year: Peter Anderson, DVM, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, senior award for teaching; Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Assistant Professor, Forensic Pathology, junior award for mentoring; Sixto Leal, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Laboratory Medicine, junior award for service; and Frida Rosenblum Donath, M.D., Assistant Professor, Anatomic Pathology, junior award for teaching. 

Peter Anderson, D.V.M., Ph.D.

Peter Anderson, D.V.M., Ph.D., is the 2021 recipient of the Dean’s Excellence Award in Teaching for senior faculty. Anderson is a professor in the Department of Pathology, Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology and the Director of Pathology Undergraduate Education at the UAB School of Medicine.

UAB medical student Lily Mahler is the 2021 recipient of the William Boyd Medal at the 2021 University of Alabama School of Medicine Dean's Awards ceremony, held virtually on May 20, 2021. The Boyd Medal is given each year to the UAB medical student whose performance in all aspects of their pathology education has been most outstanding.

Mahler attended Auburn University for her undergraduate studies in microbiology and graduated from the University of Alabama School of Medicine with her medical degree in May. She served as a Medical Student Research Assistant in 2020 under Brandi McCleskey, M.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Forensic Pathology, where she participated in research efforts with the UAB School of Medicine (SOM) and the Jefferson County Medical Examiners Office. In this role, Mahler learned literature review and manscript drafting. She gained additional research experience in 2018 from the laboratory of John Hartman, I.V., M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Genetics, where she studied NF1 gene regulation via phenomic characterization of Saccharomyces cerevisiae homolog IRA2. Mahler will move to Boston to work as a pathology resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. 

In his fourth decade of service to UAB, Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Robert W. Mowry Endowed Professor and Executive Vice Chair, Department of Pathology, can add the title of Distinguished Professor to his long list of accomplishments. Siegal’s appointment was approved by the University of Alabama Board of Trustees in April 2021, and is the first such honor for a pathologist at UAB.

During his 30+ year tenure at UAB, Siegal has set a high standard through his professional, academic, research, and service contributions. In his current role as Executive Vice Chair, he delivers tremendous administrative support and experience to the operations of both the department and the institution.

“By the very nature of his more than three-decade commitment to excellence in this academic community, his unwavering dedication to groups underrepresented in medicine, and the recognition and goodwill he has generated for UAB by the model of physician-scholar that he sets, Dr. Siegal is worthy of being named a Distinguished Professor,” says George Netto, M.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair, UAB Department of Pathology. “We are very proud to see him recognized by the institution for his lifelong commitment to clinical, educational and administrative endeavors.”

Clockwise starting front left: Zheng Ping (class of 2017), Professor Shi Wei, Ruby Ma (2016), Jennifer Gordetsky, Assistant Professors Ginger Duncan (2017) and Brandi McCleskey (2016), Ren (2014), Dejun Shen.

In the Department of Pathology, we are fortunate to have several faculty members who worked as trainees at UAB at one point or another in their academic careers. Follow along with a few of them as they describe when they first came to UAB, and how they wound up as full-time faculty on our team. Their stories are varied, and we are thrilled to count them all as colleagues. 

Craig Mackinnon, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., professor and director, Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics
Photography: Steve Wood
The University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine and UAB Hospital laboratories have established the Genomic Diagnostics Lab, a first step toward an expanded offering of genomic diagnostic testing at UAB. This collaborative project with the UAB Department of Pathology’s Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics Division and UAB Hospital opened in January 2021.

This year April 18-24 is Medical Laboratory Professionals Week, an annual celebration of medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in health care and patient advocacy led by the American Society for Clinical Pathology. Celebrations took place throughout the week, including lunches for lab staff on Wednesday, April 21, and a photo contest. The Lab Week Photo Contest, sponsored by Marisa Marques, M.D., Interim Division Director, Laboratory Medicine, asked department and hospital lab staff to submit images that "identify beauty found in the midst of a global pandemic."

First Place Winner:
Christine DeGreen, night shift Core Lab – untitled