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The Department of Pathology’s Sixto M. Leal, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Laboratory Medicine, has received a 2020 CCTS Interdisciplinary Network Pilot Award of $60,000 from the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) and the UAB Department of Pathology. Dr. Leal received the award after submitting his innovative proposal titled, "Development of a novel diagnostic test that can distinguish active infection with clostridium difficile from colonization.”

Yi-Ping Li, Ph.D., Jay M. McDonald Endowed Professor in Bone Pathobiology, was recently awarded an R01 award from the National Institute of Arthiritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases titled, "Characterizing the Negative Signaling in Dendritic Cells and Macrophages to Attenuate Inflammation and Bone Destruction in Rheumatoid Arthritis." The award starts in February and runs through the end of 2024.

Dr. Li's aims for the grant were to "provide important insights into the negative regulation of the cells of the immune system to effectively target inflammation and bone destruction in Rheumatoid arthritis. Knowledge gained from this study may bring forth potential superior therapeutic means for treating Rheumatoid arthritis and other inflammatory bone diseases."

In March, many of our colleagues will be recognized for their years of service working at UAB and the Department of Pathology. The UAB Service Awards proudly honors those employees who have made a significant career commitment to the University of Alabama at Birmingham. The program is designed to recognize and express appreciation to employees at each five-year milestone who have completed five or more years of service to UAB. A presentation is held in March for non-hospital employees having completed the required years of service by Dec. 31 of the preceding year.

In 2019, UAB had 1,118 employees eligible for service award recognition. Click here to meet the 2019 Service Award Recipients with 20 or more years of service. We appreciate your ongoing dedication to the continuing success of the University’s mission and vision. On Friday, March 13, the Department will host a recognition ceremony for our department's many award recipients.

Dr. Rance Chadwick Siniard, M.D., will join the UAB Department of Pathology on Monday, March 2, in the Division of Laboratory Medicine as an Assistant Professor. He joins the department from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where he was a clinical assistant professor since 2017. He served as clinical director, therapeutic apherisis, in that role since January 2019.

Siniard received his medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 2007, after graduating summa cum laude from Kennesaw University with an undergraduate degree in biology.

Siniard served as the medical director of UNC Hospitals Blood Donor Center from October 2017; as director of the Pathology Residency Rotation in blood banking at UNC Chapel Hill from July 2018 to present. He was Associate Medical Director, Transfusion Medicine and Special Coagulation at McLendon Clinical Laboratories at UNC Healthcare.

His research interests include hemostasis and thrombosis, specifically thrombotic microangiopathies including thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP). At UNC, he assisted in banking plasma from each TTP patient’s first apheresis procedure, which will allowed him to create a bank of research samples for additional studies. Dr. Siniard plans to continue this line of research at UAB.

On Sunday, February 16, George J. Netto, M.D., professor and Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair of the UAB Department of Pathology, took part in a ceremonial transfer of editorial leadership of the journal Modern Pathology, the scientific journal of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. Netto succeeds John Eble, M.D., Chair, Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at Indiana University School of Medicine, as editor-in-chief of Modern Pathology. Eble served in that role for 20 years and built Modern Pathology into one of the country’s top pathology publications.

USCAP is a professional organization providing continuing medical education and translational research to improve practices and patient outcomes globally. USCAP employs modern educational delivery methods using digital assets to prepare pathologists for next-generation learning and make possible outreach to colleagues working in low-resource countries.

This year's fourth annual C. Bruce Alexander Lecture in Pathology Education featured Danny A. Milner, Jr., M.D., MSC, FASCP, Chief Medical Officer, American Society for Clinical Pathology. The event took place on February 18 in the West Pavilion Conference Center to a full audience.

Milner's talk, titled,"Building a Career in Global Health: Traditional and Non-Traditional Pathways and the Value of Mentorship," focused on the importance of mentorship in healthcare. He highlighted his international work in Africa and discussed how to translate healthcare and pathology issues between cultures. 

A mentor himself of many residents during his time at UAB, Dr. C. Bruce Alexander posed for a photo with several of his former resident trainees who are now on faculty in the department. 

Dr. Danny Milner with Dr. C. Bruce Alexander   From left to right, back row: Dr. Virginia Duncan, Dr. Danny Milner, Dr. Forest Huls, Dr. Jason Wicker, Dr. David Dorn; (front row, L to R): Dr. C. Bruce Alexander, Dr. Marisa Marques, Dr. Shi Wei

Milner earned his M.D. from the University of Alabama's School of Medicine in 2000. He completed his residency and fellowship in Anatomic Pathology, Clinical Pathology, and Microbiology in 2005 at the Brigham and Women's Hospital. In 1997, Milner started as a medical student working in Africa and since then has developed a reputation world-wide for his expertise on cerebral malaria. He has been involved in increasing pathology resources in a number of countries. He led the teams in Rwanda and Haiti that built anatomic pathology laboratories for advanced cancer diagnostics. Before Dr. Milner joined the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), he spent 10 years at Harvard teaching pathology, microbiology, and infectious disease. He earned many research grants for HIV and malaria. 

Dr. Milner has authored over 100 publications and has presented his work in over 10 countries. He provides direction for many medical aspects of ASCP's policies and programs that relate to ASCP's global healthcare initiatives.

On January 31, 2020, the Department of Pathology tied for second place in the UAB School of Medicine's 4th annual Diversity Fair, hosted by the UAB School of Medicine Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The fair took place in North Pavilion Atrium and featured a live international band and cuisine from around the world, courtesy of the UAB Heersink School of Medicine departments. Each department hosted a table and represented its department's cultural diversity. Judges evaluated each department presentation, and the winner was chosen based on the table's design and food offerings

Monica Henderson, left, and Susan Mills, organizers of the 2020 Pathology display   

The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) will host it 109th annual meeting February 29-March 5 at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Several of our Department faculty, residents and fellows will present recent work at this, the largest world meeting of pathologists.

View a full list of UAB Pathology presentations, including posters, platform presentations, and special courses.

Join us for the UAB Pathology Reception at USCAP on Monday, March 2, 5:30-7pm in the JW Marriott, Los Angeles, JW Plaza II.

The Department of Pathology's Craig Maynard, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, has just been named one of UAB's 2020 Pittman Scholars for his research accomplishments. Dr. Maynard's current lab research is primarily focused on three areas. These include the role of T cell co-stimulation in promoting regulatory T cell (Treg cell) stability during chronic intestinal inflammation, the role of anti-commensal antibodies in the establishment and maintenance of host-microbiota mutualism, and lastly, the potential impact of early life stress (ELS) on susceptibility to, and chronicity of, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Maynard's overall research seeks to better understand the etiology of IBD and utitlize this knowledge for the development of novel therapeutic options. 

Rana Aldrees, M.D., a current PGY-3 resident in the UAB Department of Pathology, has been awarded with inaugural Ona Faye-Petersen Educational Support Fund. 

Dr. Aldrees will be using the fund to attend an additional course at the annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology, USCAP 2020 in Los Angeles titled, "Major Advances in the Diagnosis and Management of Breast Disease." She will be presenting a poster at the USCAP conference on March 2 titled, "Validation of the Revised 8th AJCC Breast Cancer Prognostic Staging System: Analysis of 5,321 Cases from a Single Institution." 

A study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology by researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham largely validates the hypothesis that a second immunoglobulin, IgG, is a crucial part of the pathogenic immunodeposits in glomeruli of patients with IgA nephropathy. UAB Department of Pathology faculty members Huma Fatima, M.D.,Associate Professor, Anatomic Pathology, and Lea Novak, M.D., Associate Professor, Anatomic Pathology, assisted in this study and co-authored, along with other UAB School of Medicine faculty, the JASN paper, "Glomerular immunodeposits of patients with IgA nephropathy are enriched for IgG autoantibodies specific for galactose- deficient IgA1." 

Lea Novak, M.D., UAB Department of Pathology and Stacy Hall, Research Associate, UAB Department of Microbiology

The most common form of the kidney disease called glomerulonephritis is IgA nephropathy. IgA nephropathy is believed to be caused by IgA1-containing immune complexes formed in the blood that ultimately deposit in the glomeruli- the filtering apparatus of the kidneys. When kidney glomeruli become damaged, the kidneys lose their ability to remove waste from the blood and to retain blood proteins, and the injury can lead to kidney failure. 

In IgA nephropathy kidney biopsies, IgA1 is the main immunoglobulin detected in the glomeruli by a clinical test called routine immunofluorescence. But those tests were often failing to detect immunoglobulin IgG, which was believed to be another vital contributor to the disease. 

The UAB Tissue Biorepository (UAB-TBR), an important asset to the future of research at UAB, has officially launched. The UAB-TBR is housed in the Department of Pathology, and coordinated with the CCTS Biorepository.

A central commitment of the School of Medicine and the Health System is never to compromise our mission of patient care, as well as the safety and privacy of patients. With appropriate ethical and privacy guidelines, the UAB-TBR will collect, process, store, and distribute high-quality human tissue specimens to UAB investigators, including (but not limited to) the investigators of the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center. The UAB-TBR will support clinicians and investigators in improving clinical care, while advancing personalized medicine.

The UAB Department of Pathology is excited to congratulate the 2020-2021 Chief Residents, Christine Pesoli, M.D., Anatomic Pathology Chief Resident and Benjamin Daggett, M.D., Clinical Pathology Chief Resident. 

The UAB Department of Pathology is excited to welcome two new faculty to the Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology: Erin Eun-Young Ahn, Ph.D., as associate professor, and Vivek Nanda, Ph.D., as assistant professor.

The UAB Department of Pathology is excited to welcome two new faculty starting January 2, 2020: José Lima, M.D., as assistant professor, Laboratory Medicine, and Mary Long, M.D., as assistant professor, Laboratory Medicine.

The UAB Department of Pathology announces the appointment of Shi Wei, M.D., Ph.D., and Deepti Dhall, M.D., as Associate Directors of the Division of Anatomic Pathology (AP). In this role, Drs. Wei and Dhall will support Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, M.D., Ph.D., the Division Director.

This year's sixth annual Robert M. Brissie Memorial Lecture, sponsored by the Department of Pathology and the Alabama Eye Bank, featured Laura D. Knight, M.D., Chief Medical Examiner and Coroner of the Washoe County, Nevada Regional Medical Examiner's Office. This lecture took place on Thursday, December 12 in the West Pavilion Conference Center.

From left to right: Dr. Bob Phillips, ophthamologist and corneal transplant surgeon on the Board of Trustees for Advancing Sight, Dr. Laura Knight, chief forensic pathologist and Brissie Lecturer, and Alan Blake, President and CEO of Advancing Sight.

We recognize the contributions of William Grizzle, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Anatomic Pathology, to our department and to UAB for more than 30 years. Grizzle plans to retire effective January 1, 2020.

The UAB Department of Pathology is was represented internationally by our chair, George J. Netto, M.D., Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair, as he delivered lectures and coursework at several international conferences this fall.

By Matt Windsor, UAB Reporter

In some ways Elizabeth Worthey, Ph.D., is a typical nerd. She likes having lots of computer screens and solving puzzles and nothing so much as coming up with novel ways to use software to solve complex problems.

Elizabeth "Liz" Worthey joined UAB this summer to help open up genetic insights as a routine part of clinical care. "You have to actually have a health care system to put [genomic diagnostics] into health care," Worthey said. "That's why I'm at UAB."