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."
Liyun Cao, Instructor in the Division of Lab Medicine, received the 2018 Travel Award from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) Southeast Section to attend the organization's annual meeting in Chicago, July 29-August 2.
Left: Professor Joseph Chen, Tri-Service Hospital, a hematologist who invited X. Long Zheng as a guest professor for one week.
X. Long Zheng, Division Director, Lab Medicine, was the invited speaker at three events throughout the summer. First stop, the Tri-Service Hospital and National Defense Medical College in Taipei, Taiwan, on July 3-5, where he gave talks on, "Diagnosis and management of thrombotic microangiopathy;" "Advances in Thrombotic Microangiopathy Research;" and "Differential diagnosis of TMA-the role of ADAMTS13."
Next, Zheng lectured on "New Advances in Biology of Thrombotic Thrombocytopenic Purpura" at the New Advances in Vascular Biology Conference, sponsored by the Irish Centre for Vascular Biology, July 16 in Dublin, Ireland.
On August 4, Zheng will address theNational Congress of Cardiovascular Disease, in Beijing, China, on "Targeted Delivery of Recombinant ADATMS13 for Therapy."
Our own Joanne Murphy-Ullrich gave the plenary talk to the Matrix Biology Europe 2018 conference in Manchester, England, and also chaired the American Society for Matrix Biology-sponsored session on ECM and fibrosis, July 21-24.
Sooryanarayana Varambally gave several lectures in Alabama and abroad this summer. First, he visited Paris' Centre de Recherche des Cordeliers on July 6, and Life Arc in London and Cambridge University. He moved on to deliver a lecture on "Identifying New Therapeutic Targets in Cancer" at University Clinic in Ulm, Germany. Finally Varambally visited Zabgreb University in Zagreb, Croatia, a UAB partner institution, to speak on the, "Role of histone methyltransferase EZH2 in regulating oncogene tumor suppressor networks" and his cancer data mining tool, UALCAN.
Dr. Varambally meets with colleagues at Cambridge University
On July 17, back in Alabama, he lectured on "A System Biology Approach to Identify Therapeutic Targets in Cancer" at the NanoBio2018 Summit at Alabama State University in Montgomery.
Rajeev Samant was a member of the Program Committee, Tumor Microenvironment Section, at the 2018 Annual American Association for Cancer Research Meeting in April, and study sections at NIH in February, on Provocative Questions R01/R21, and June on Cancer Drug Development and Design.
Elizabeth Brown was an invited member of the National Cancer Institute's "Myeloma Think Tank."
From our Forensic Division, Dan Atherton presented a poster and presentation at the annual meeting of the Association of Pathology Chairs, in San Diego on July 18. Atherton presented a poster and a presentation on " Microscopic Examination of Lesions Discovered in Anatomy Lab: An Innovative Educational Tool," with fellow faculty member Peter Anderson.
Brandi McCleskey presented on July 23-24 as part of a statewide program to educate law enforcement personnel, attorneys, child protective services personnel, and EMS personnel on Child Injury and Death Scene Re-Enactment. Dr. McCleskey spoke on, “The Medical Examiner’s Response to Sudden Unexpected Infant Death (SUID).
Greg Davis has been asked to participate in a conference hosted by the National Institute of Justice concerning opioid deaths and Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs, to be held in Washington, D.C. on August 21.
John Chatham was an invited speaker at the 35th meeting of the International Society of Heart Research – European Section, Amsterdam (the Netherlands), held July 16-19. The title of his presentation was, "Is O-GlcNAcylation the new phosphorylation?"
While this list is not comprehensive, it captures some of the many accomplishments of our esteemed faculty in presenting their research and expertise to a broader community. Bravo!