7/11/2023
Emily Campbell Whitt, M.S., a Pathology Ph.D. candidate, was awarded the 2023 Pamela Delp Polashenski MD Breast Cancer Research Trainee Grant by the Breast Cancer Coalition of Rochester.
The $25,000 in funding is a significant achievement for a Ph.D. student.
Whitt is based in the lab of Paula M. Vertino, Ph.D., at the Wilmot Cancer Institute.
7/7/2023
Program Administrator Melissa Allen recently spent time with a senior allied health class at Baldwin Union School, located on the South Shore of Long Island. She shared information about the roles of medical laboratory professionals and touted the wide range of job opportunities available. Above is one of the many thank-you notes she received from the appreciative students. Thank you, Melissa, for carrying our flag!
6/6/2023
Another successful Pathology Research Day – our department’s 42nd annual –
was celebrated June 5 in the URMC Kornberg Medical Research Bu
ilding.
The day included more than 50 poster presentations, in addition to 14 oral presentations delivered by graduate students in the Cell Biology of Disease Ph.D. Program and Pathology residents.
Our keynote speaker was Tami Martino, Ph.D., Distinguished Chair of Molecular Biology and director of the Centre for Cardiovascular Investigations at the University of Guelph. Her talk was titled “Circadian Medicine: Revolutionizing the Treatment of Cardiovascular Disease and Other Major Conditions.”
2023 Research Day Honors
Chair’s Recognition Award: Xiaolan Ou, M.D., Ph.D.
Eric Schenk Teaching Award: Paul Hosking, M.D.
Janet Sparks Teaching Award: Alayna Loiselle, Ph.D., an alumna of our Ph.D. program
The Robert Mooney Award for Outstanding Thesis goes to Dr. H. Mark Kenney, mentored by Dr. Edward Schwarz. Dr. Kenney is a rising fourth-year medical student in the Medical Scientist Training Program (M.D./Ph.D. program) who defended his thesis in May 2022. He plans to apply to residency programs with the goal of pursuing rheumatology-dermatology or dermatopathology as his specialty.
For outstanding scientific presentations, residents Ben Gertsen , M.D. (1st place), and Alexander Besen, M.D., and Kyla Jorgenson, M.D., M.S. (tie for 2nd place), as well as graduate students Kiana Chen (mentor Homaira Rahimi, M.D.), Carol Deaton (Gail Johnson, Ph.D.), Zachary Sechrist (mentor Calvin Cole, Ph.D.) and Celia Soto (mentor Benjamin Frisch, Ph.D.) each will receive travel awards.
Additionally, Akash Mahmudul (rotation mentor Zhenqiang Yao, B.Med, Ph.D.) will receive a travel award for his poster in the Cancer category of the of the poster session; Duy Nguyen (mentor Patrick Murphy, Ph.D.) for his poster in the Cell Biology & Genetics category; Sophia Eliseeva (mentor Felix Yarovinsky, M.D.) for her poster in the Hematology & Immunology category and Chen Yu (mentor Roman Eliseev, M.D., Ph.D.) for her poster in the Musculoskeletal and Craniofacial Research category.
The Ph.D. Student Leadership Award was given to Sophia Eliseeva for her work as president of our student council during the 2022-23 academic year. Many thanks to Sophia and the other members of the student council – Emily Whitt (past president) and Vania Lopez-Ruiz (social/communications chair).
11/16/2022
For the first time ever, Rochester was the host city for the fall meeting of the Society for Pediatric Pathology (SPP), held at URMC Oct. 7-9. The event, co-sponsored by our department and the SPP, featured three days of academic presentations as well as extracurricular outings including a boat cruise on the Erie Canal and banquet at the historic George Eastman Museum.
URMC's Pedipath faculty Phil Katzman, M.D., and Leon Metlay, M.D., were co-chairs for the event, which they joked is sort of like hosting the Olympics without the corporate sponsorships. Each year the SPP holds two large meetings—one in the fall and another in the spring that coincides with USCAP. The fall meeting is traditionally hosted by a children’s hospital, and while Golisano Children’s Hospital is one of the largest in Upstate New York, it’s much smaller than most places who have hosted the SPP meeting in the past. For that reason, the event was an opportunity to showcase our city and institution and network with experts and trainees from across the country.
In total, 110 people attended the hybrid conference in person, with another 70 who joined virtually. Poster presentations were held in Flaum Atrium and platform sessions in the Class of ’62 Auditorium. The meeting also included talks by clinicians and investigators from URMC Pediatrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine, who collaborated with pathology.
Being back in person meant a return to public speaking behind a podium, which pathologists rarely have the chance do in their daily work.
“I was uncharacteristically pushed in the forefront most of the meeting so I did a lot of the introductions which I’m not used to, but it was good,” said Katzman.
The sun shone brightly for the group outing on the Colonial Belle, giving guests time to chat and get fresh air before heading to dinner at the Eastman Museum. The museum, home of Kodak film pioneer George Eastman, appealed to guests. “Pathologists are visual people, so the Eastman House was a perfect fit,” Katzman said.
The meeting itself featured a variety of engaging presentations, made all the more appealing by the ability to have in-person discussion with other attendees.
“I had a blast and a half,” Metlay said. “After a few years without in-person meetings, to be able to stand and talk to somebody was just cool.”
Metlay even used the opportunity to bring a colleague to his office to look at slides from an interesting autopsy case. From a recruitment standpoint, our faculty also had the chance to promote the now-open pedipath fellowship—as did colleagues from other institutions with openings. “I spent a lot of time talking to residents and fellows; whether that bears fruit we’ll see,” Metlay said.
Pictured above: From left, Michael Arnold, M.D., Ph.D., far left, of Colorado Children’s Hospital, Cristina Pacheco, MD, of University of Washington, Jonathan Hecht of Beth Israel Deaconess, Lisa Teot of Boston Children’s, and URMC’s event co-chair Philip Katzman, M.D., at poster presentations on day 1.
Top photo: Richard Miller, Ph.D., of OBGYN, Pathology, Pediatrics and Environmental Medicine, presenting at the day 3 symposium on birth defects due to teratogenic vs. genetic effects in perinatal pathology.
Read about our pediatric pathology team in the latest issue of Golisano Children's Hospital publication Strong Kids: "Meet the Detectives Behind the Diagnosis"
7/7/2022
Siba El Hussein, M.D. has been named to the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s 40 Under Forty List for 2022, which recognizes future leaders in the field.
El Hussein joined URMC in July 2021 and is board-certified in hemepath, cytopathology, anatomic and clinical pathology. In her first year, she received the department’s Excellence in Teaching Award, as voted for by residents in Pathology & Laboratory Medicine.
She is interested in integrating artificial intelligence into the pathology workflow that has inspired several AI-based models to aid in diagnosing challenging lymphomas.
“Pathology is witnessing a true renaissance thanks to the rapid rate of technologic development affecting every single aspect of this specialty," she said. "Embracing this change and capitalizing on it will help us unlock many biologic questions and bridge cutting edge knowledge to the bedside.”
She joins other winners from URMC including Jennifer Findeis-Hosey, M.D. who was honored in 2016. This year’s recipients also include Bonnie Choy, M.D., who graduated from the Rochester School of Medicine & Dentistry.
Follow Dr. El Hussein on Twitter: @SibaElHussein.