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The UAB Department of Pathology is proud to announce the recent renewal and awarding of research funds to several investigators in the Department's Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology (MCP) and Anatomic Pathology.

Rajasekaran Namakkal-Soorappan, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, successfully renewed his ongoing R01 grant on “Reductive Stress Induces Proteotoxic Cardiac disease” (competitive renewal) for the next term, with the major aim to address the translational potential of the “Reductive Stress in Heart Failure Patients.” The award, through July 2023, is funded by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Elizabeth Brown, M.D., Professor, is funded by the National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases/NIH/DHHS for her work on, "Association of Genetic and Autoantibody Signatures with SLE Clinical Course," as well as an award for "Characterization of the Lupus Nephritis microRNAome" from the National Institute of Arthritis & Musculoskeletal & Skin Diseases/NIH/DHHS.

November was a busy month in the Department, with several events for faculty. On Monday, November 5, Yabing Chen, Ph.D., Professor and Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Education, coordinated the second annual Faculty Development Forum meeting, with the theme, "Moving Up the Ranks." The meeting was designed as a forum for faculty members to discuss the process, and learn of potential pitfalls--of obtaining promotion and tenure.
Dr. Yabing Chen addresses the crowd gathered to learn about the Department's promotion and tenure process. 

The following evening, Chair George Netto, M.D., and his wife Ruby hosted a dinner reception in honor of the success of several of our faculty, including promotions, retirements, and awards. The event was held at Garden & Galley restaurant on Birmingham's Southside.

First, Anna Yemeleyanova, M.D., Professor, was introduced to Ira Gore, M.D., and Cynthia McCaleb Gore, benefactors of the Hazel Gore, M.D., Endowed Professorship in Gynecologic Pathology. Yemelyanova joined our team as Professor in the Division of Anatomic Pathology and Director of the Gynecologic Pathology Section in spring of 2018. In addition, Dr. Yemelyanova has the role of Associate Director of our Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics, led by Interim Division Director Shuko Harada, M.D. She received the endowment in October. 

On Tuesday, November 27, the UAB Department of Pathology, Department of Urology, Division of Gastroenterology and Division of Hematology/Oncology joined forces to host a No Shave November event in honor of Men’s Health Awareness Month.

Physicians and staff throughout the School of Medicine put down their razors for a month to raise awareness for some of the biggest health issues faced by men: prostate cancer, testicular cancer and mental health. Treadwell Barbershop and A New U Barber & Style helped shave it all off while attendees enjoyed the photo booth, refreshments and prizes donated by local businesses.

Pathology faculty Drs. George Netto, Daniel Dye, Sooryanarayana Varambally, and Upender Manne, plus several staff and others too part in the event by growing out their facial hair and contributing funds to the cause. Money raised by the department will be donated to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

  
Clockwise from top left: George Netto, M.D., Chair, and Pathology colleagues show off their pre-shave growth; Netto is the first victim to get shaved by Steve Bishop of Treadwell Barbershop; Daniel Dye is up next; Forensics Division Director Greg Davis poses with Netto (post-shave) and Dye (pre) 

The UAB Department of Pathology on Tuesday, November 13, welcomed world-renowned expert in glycobiology Richard Cummings, Ph.D., Professor, Harvard Medicine, to present the fifth annual John Jay Listinsky Endowed Lecture in Glycobiology.

Cummings, an Alabama native, is Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Director, HMS Center for Glycoscience, and Director, National Center for Functional Glycomics. The topic of his lecture was "Integration of Glycomics, Immunology, and Infectious Disease."

Cummings presented his lecture, held in the Comprehensive Cancer Center's Wallace Tumor Institute, to a standing-room only audience.

Richard Cummings, M.D., presents his lecture on "Integration of Glycomics, Immunology and Infectious Disease," to a standing-room only audience.

Dr. Jay John Listinsky, an adjunct associate professor of pathology at UAB at the time of his untimely death in 2012, originally trained as a diagnostic radiologist but had a decades-long interest in fucosylated molecules and their overlapping physiologic properties. He collaborated with investigators in the Division of Anatomic Pathology for many years, which generated a number of novel manuscripts which added important data to the knowledge base of glycobiology. To further this work, his friends, colleagues, and family, spearheaded by his wife and UAB pathologist, Cathy, endowed this lectureship for future generations. Learn more.

From left to right: Ralph Sanderson, Ph.D., Division Director, Molecular & Cellular Pathology; Richard Cummings, M.D., Cathy Listinsky, M.D., former UAB Pathologist, and Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Professor & Vice Chair

 The Department sponsors several endowed lectureships, taking place annually. Learn more.

On Friday, November 16, UAB's Comprehensive Cancer Center held its 20th annual Research Retreat, with the theme of "Developmental Therapeutics," at The Club atop Red Mountain.

The Department of Pathology had a strong showing at the event, with students and faculty presenting dozens of posters. Postdoctoral fellow Darshan Chandrashekar, Ph.D., presented the afternoon lecture on "UALCAN: An Integrated Data-mining Platform to Facilitate the Comprehensive Analysis of Cancer Transcriptome." The UALCAN tool has been cited on numerous papers and the website has been visited 93,000 times since it launched in January 2017. Learn more.

The daylong event capped off with the announcement of the Albert F. LoBuglio Distinguished Faculty Award, presented to a faculty member of the CCC who has made distinguished contributions to the research activities of the Center. Michael Birrer, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the CCC, presented to Pathology faculty and CCC member Upender Manne, M.D., with the award. This is the 17th time the award has been presented; previous winners from the department include Ralph Sanderson, Ph.D., Division Director, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, in 2017; and William Grizzle, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, in 2005.

Upender Manne, M.D., above left, receives the Albert F. LoBuglio Distinguished Faculty Award from Michael Birrer, M.D., at the CCC's annual Research Retreat. 

The UAB Department of Pathology is proud to recognize Anna Yemelyanova, M.D., as the inaugural Hazel Gore, M.D., Endowed Professorship in Gynecologic Pathology, generously supported by the Gore family. The University of Alabama Board of Trustees approved the nomination October 1.

Yemelyanova joined our team as Professor in the Division of Anatomic Pathology and Director of the Gynecologic Pathology Section in spring of 2018. In addition, Dr. Yemelyanova has the role of Associate Director of our Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics, led by Interim Division Director Shuko Harada, M.D.

Anna Yemelyanova, M.D.

Yemelanova’s previous professional appointments include Associate Professor of Pathology at the Gynecologic Pathology Division at the University of Texas, MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Assistant Professor of Pathology at the Division of Gynecologic Pathology at Johns Hopkins University.

Two of our distinguished faculty have achieved emeritus status in the Department of Pathology. Congratulations to Dennis Kucik, M.D., Associate Professor, Pathology, and R. Pat Bucy, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Laboratory Medicine. 

Dennis Kucik, M.D., retired on December 31, 2016. Dennis joined UAB’s Department of Pathology, Division of Laboratory Medicine in August of 1997. In 2003 he was appointed Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Birmingham Veterans Administration Medical Center. In addition to his invaluable service with the VA, Kucik maintained an active research portfolio during his career. He has been recognized nationally for his achievements related to his NASA-funded research project using both cell and animal models to determine the mechanism of radiation-induced aortic endothelial cell adhesiveness and its consequences for atherosclerosis. His research helped predict the risks associated with interplanetary travel for astronauts, as well as develop countermeasures to mitigate the adverse effects of prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation. Dr. Kucik served as a mentor to many UAB graduate students and Pathology residents throughout the years.

R. Pat Bucy, M.D., Ph.D., retired from active service at UAB on October 1, 2018 and was appointed Professor Emeritus. He began his scientific career studying physical organic chemistry while in college, graduating in 1975 from Austin College in Sherman, Texas. He joined the Medical Scientist Training Program at Washington University (one of only three in the nation with full funding at the time) in the fall of 1975.  Bucy completed his Ph.D. in cellular immunology with a focus on the Ir gene control of immune responses to insulin and graduated in 1981 with both an M.D. and Ph.D.  He completed a residency in Anatomic Pathology at Washington University and joined the Faculty there as Assistant Professor in 1984. Bucy joined UAB in 1987.

We are excited to announce the arrival of a new faculty member, joining the Division of Anatomic Pathology led by Director Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D. Ph.D., Professor, Anatomic Pathology, in the Cytopathology section, directed by Isam-Eldin Eltoum, M.D., Professor, Anatomic Pathology.

Dina Kokh, M.D., is a board certified anatomic and clinical pathologist and cytopathologist. She completed her residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the University of Maryland, followed by a fellowship in cytopathology. Kokh subsequently a pursued fellowship in gynecologic pathology at Stanford University. Her research interests include gynecologic and breast pathology/cytopathology. Kokh joins the division as an assistant professor.

Please join the Department in welcoming Dr. Kokh!

The UAB Computational Biology & Bioinformatics Center is offering a new course, "CB2-101: Bioinformatics Computing," replacing the old introductory course "CB2-101: Introduction to Scientific Computing” offered under the umbrella of the CB2 initiative at UAB (http://www.uab.edu/cb2). The course is led by Malay Basu, M.Tech, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Informatics, Department of Pathology.

This free course will start on Thursday, November 1. It is a hands-on, rigorous, and fast-paced introduction to computational skills required for Bioinformatics research, modeled after the National Science Foundation "immersive learning" proposal (http://www.nsf.gov/pubs/2008/nsf08204/index.jsp).

UAB Pathology celebrated the 27th year of its Paulette Shirey Pritchett Endowed Lecture in Pathology with an outstanding lecture by Elaine Jaffe, M.D., Series Editor, World Health Organization Classification of Tumours. Jaffe's lecture, "Charting the Future of Lymphoma Classification: A Road Map for Disease Discovery and Treatment," took place before a full house on Monday, September September 17, with the Pritchett family in attendance.
From left to right: George Netto, M.D., Elaine Jaffe, M.D., Yabing Chen, Ph.D., and Robert Pritchett, M.D.

This endowed lecture series is named in honor of Dr. Paulette Shirey Pritchett, and is supported by Dr. Robert Pritchett, husband of Dr. Paulette Pritchett, and family. Dr. Pritchett was a highly respected, young member of the UAB Department of Pathology when she unexpectedly passed away on August 4, 1984.She was a native Alabamian who obtained her medical degree from the University of Alabama, where she was awarded the Stewart Graves Award and the William Boyd Medal for her demonstrated excellence in pathology.

Two papers featuring the results of research conducted in the laboratory of X. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., related to the pathogenesis and novel therapeutics for immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (iTTP) are published recently.

The first, "Clinical Factors and Biomarkers Predicting Outcome in Patients with Immune-Mediated Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura" was featured in Haematologica, the journal of the European Haematology Association, online on August 23, 2018. Elizabeth Staley, M.D., Ph.D., Hemostasis Fellow of pathology, was first author on the paper, along with colleagues Wenjing Cao, M.D., Ph.D., Instructor, Pathology; Nicole Kocher, Researcher, TTP Lab; Lucy Zheng, senior of Indian Springs School, Huy Pham, M.D., M.P.H., and Robin Lorenz, M.D., Ph.D., former Assistant Professor and Professor of Pathology, respectively, Lance Williams, Associate Professor of Pathology, Marisa Marques, Ph.D., Professor, and X. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology and Division Director, Laboratory Medicine.

The second, "Transfusion of platelets loaded with recombinant ADAMTS13 is efficacious for inhibiting arterial thrombosis in mice and in human," was published in the journal Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology (ATVB), on September 13, 2018. First author Mohammed Abdelgawwad, M.D., Ph.D., a graduate student of pathobiology theme at UAB. Other contributors include Wenjing Cao, M.D., Ph.D., Nicole Kocher, B.S., Lance Williams, M.D., Liang Zheng, Ph.D. and X. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D.The findings suggest that transfusion of recombinant ADAMTS13-loaded platelets may be a novel and potentially effective therapeutic approach for arterial thrombosis, including congenital and immune-mediated thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura.

Haematologica and ATVB are top journals in the field of Hematology, with an impact factor of 9.09 and 6.6, respectively. 

The Zheng Lab is interested in understanding the biological mechanisms of iTTP, which is caused by a deficiency of plasma ADAMTS13, the enzyme responsible for cleaving von Willebrand factor (VWF). Dr. Zheng was among the first group of investigators who discovered and cloned the ADAMTS13 enzyme. The Zheng Lab has made many seminal contributions to the understanding of the structure-function relationship and regulation of ADAMTS13, by working to develop novel tools for the diagnosis and treatment of TTP.

Each year the Zheng Lab hosts the TTP Fair and Education Day, an event designed to create a conversation and a community between those affected by the disorder and the physicians and researchers who are working to improve the available treatments, outcomes, and recovery time. Visit the event website to learn more.

It was quite a night on Friday, September 7, when the 2018 UAB School of Medicine Argus Awards. Medical students nominated five Department of Pathology teaching faculty for awards this year, and three of our faculty took home awards.

The Argus Awards, created in 1996 to recognize faculty members, give medical students the chance to honor their mentors, professors, courses and course directors for outstanding service to medical education. Faculty are nominated by course evaluations and students vote to select award winners in each category.

The UAB Department of Pathology is proud to announce the expansion of its Community Practice Pathology Program (CPPP) deeper into Northeast Alabama with the addition of the Riverview Regional Medical Center, effective August 1.

The Department will provide a full range of anatomic pathology services at the site.

The Department of Pathology is proud to announce the promotion of three of our faculty, effective October 1, 2018.

James Hackney, M.D., Assistant Professor of Neuropathology and Director of the Pathology Residency Program, receives a promotion to associate professor.

James Hackney, M.D.

The Division of Laboratory Medicine, under the leadership of Division Director Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., announces the naming of several new laboratory directors. 

Deniz Peker, M.D., Associate Professor of Pathology, Attending Physician in Hematopathology/Surgical Pathology in the Division of Laboratory Medicine, is appointed Director of the Flow Cytometry Lab at UAB hospital, effective October 1, 2018.

Five Department of Pathology teaching faculty were among the faculty nominated by medical students for the UAB School of Medicine 2018 Argus Awards.

The Argus Awards, created in 1996 to recognize faculty members, give medical students the chance to honor their mentors, professors, courses and course directors for outstanding service to medical education. Faculty are nominated by course evaluations and students vote to select award winners in each category.

UAB Pathology is proud to welcome 10 new fellows for the 2018-19 academic year.

Five fellows come to us from UAB:

• Tyler Clemmensen 2018-2019 Hematopathology Fellow
• Robin Collingwood 2018-2019 GI Pathology Fellow
• Joseph Drwiega 2018-2019 Surgical Pathology Fellow
• Diana Morlote, who will serve as the 2018-19 Hematopathology Fellow
• Scott Taylor 2018-2019 Surgical Pathology Fellow
  
  

It was a bittersweet gathering as the Department came together on June 26 to celebrate the contributions of Robin Lorenz, M.D., Ph.D.,to the Department and the University. Lorenz was Professor, Department of Pathology and Medical Education; Associate Dean for Physician Scientist Development; Director, UAB Medical Scientist (MD-PhD) Training Program; Director, UAB Medical Student Summer Research Program (MSSRP), and many other key roles. She has accepted a position as lead pathologist with Genentech.

Lorenz recently took a position with Genentech as senior director of pathology. At UAB, she held secondary faculty appointments in the UAB departments of Medical Education and Microbiology, and was a member of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Comprehensive Diabetes Center, and the Comprehensive Arthritis, MSK, Bone & Autoimmunity Center.

Lorenz joined UAB in 2002 as Associate Professor of Pathology. In 2006 she took over the UAB Medical Scientist (MD-PhD) Training Program (MSTP). In 2015 Lorenz helped establish the UAB Physician Science Development office in 2015, for which she served as Associate Dean.  

Dr. Robin Lorenz

Our department faculty have been prolific in their grant funding applications of late, and in many cases, successfully funded for their novel and outstanding research concepts.

The following is a list of awards given since March 2018 to UAB Pathology faculty and instructors. Congratulations to each of the individuals listed here and their research/lab teams for your scientific endeavors.

GRANTS AWARDED in the UAB Department of Pathology, March–July, 2018

This summer our faculty have traveled the country and the world, representing the department at conferences, meetings, and other research and clinical events. The following is a summary of some of these activities.

First, Diana Morlote, Fellow, PGY5, received a travel grant to attend the Association of Clinical Scientists 138th annual meeting, held May 16-19 in Houston, Texas. Roberty Hardy, Professor, Laboratory Medicine, is the current president of the association. Morlote presented in the Genomic and Evidence-Based Medicine track on, "Molecular and cytogenetic characterization of therapy – related myeloid neoplasms: a tertiary center experience."

Two faculty participated in UAB's 6th Annual Workshop on Metabolomics, taking place July 22-27. Victor Darley-Usmar gave the dinner lecture Tuesday on "Plotting Career Paths in Science" and Jianhua Zhang, presented, "Metabolism in the Raw-the SeaHorse, the modern Version of the Warburg Apparatus."