April 2009
Pathology & Laboratory Medicine News Items
Announcements:
- Boston University School of Medicine Alumnus Wins 2009 Ramzi Cotran Award.
Christine Iacobuzio-Donahue M.D., Ph,D. received the Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator of the Year Award. This prestigious honor was presented at the 2009 annual meeting of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology. Christine graduated from Adelphi University in New York in 1991 and earned her MD /PhD from Boston University School of Medicine in 1998. She obtained her Ph.D. thesis in pathology working under the tutelage of Mary Jo Murnane, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Iacobuzio-Donahue commented that she still writes papers the way Dr. Murnane taught her. After medical school, Dr. Iacobuzio-Donahue trained in Anatomic Pathology at Johns Hopkins University. She continues her research in colorectal and pancreatic cancer and currently holds an appointment as an Associate Professor of Pathology at Johns Hopkins.
Dr. Iacobuzio-Donahue has published nearly 100 scientific papers in the field of cancer. She has published her work in high profile journals such as Science, and the American Journal of Pathology, and her research has been selected for the cover of Cancer Research. She is the co-editor of the diagnostic textbook Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology and has contributed to the upcoming 8th edition of the classic medical student textbook Robbins and Cotran Pathologic Basis of Disease. Her important work has been profiled in the lay press including the New York Times, CNN and Forbes Magazine.
The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology annually presents the Young Investigator Award to recognize a pathologist whose body of work has contributed significantly to the diagnosis and understanding of human disease. The 2009 meeting, with over 4000 registrants, was the largest gathering of pathologists in history. Additional information about Dr. Iacobuzio-Donahue and the award may be found at www.uscap.org and navigating to the Annual Meetings, 2009 meeting and scrolling down to the Ramzi Cotran Young Investigator Award
- Congratulations to Srimathi Srinivasan one of our first-year-PhD students who has been awarded a Ruth and Martin Levine Scholarship.
- CityLab This term the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine has hosted City Lab Interns: Chris Andry and Janet Means mentored two City Lab Interns and Bryan Belikoff, MD/PhD grad student in the Remick Lab taught two City Lab Interns. In 1992, Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) pioneered an innovative, science education outreach program that has been disseminated across the country. CityLab is a biotechnology learning laboratory at BUSM serving students and teachers in grades 7 – 12. CityLab is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Center for Research Resources http://www.ncrr.nih.gov/”>(NCRR), the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA), and Boston University School of Medicine. CityLab’s mission is to provide access to state-of-the-art biotechnology laboratory facilities and curriculum, unavailable to most school systems. Teachers from Massachusetts and neighboring states bring their students to CityLab where they solve problems by applying the same techniques and concepts of genetics and molecular biology used in research laboratories today. Each topic is presented in a mystery format.
Successful Mallory Institute of Pathology Reunion/Reception
- To coincide with the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology 98th Annual Meeting, a reunion\reception of former Mallory trainees was held in the lobby of 670 Albany Street on the Boston University Medical Campus. Historical panels of the Mallory Building and its rich history were unveiled (see below) and a good representation of residents and faculty attended. Alumni were given tours of the new Anatomic Pathology labs (3rd floor), new BU research labs (4th floor) and vacant space that is soon to be built out into offices, sign-out area (6th floor) and the main clinical laboratories (7th floor). Many old friends were reunited and a most enjoyable evening was had by all.
Historical Mallory Panels – 670 Albany Street – 3rd Floor
- Four wall mounted panels portraying the Mallory Institute of Pathology building, its work and name sake were prepared and installed by Frank Burr Mallory’s grandson Ken Mallory and designer Richard Duggan. Faculty and support staff made many contributions to these fine portrayals of the history of pathology at Boston City Hospital and Boston Medical Center. The panels are mounted in the 3rd floor lobby at 670 Albany Street and in the Mallory building, now known as Yawkey Place. We encourage you to take a few minutes to stop by to enjoy them!
Welcome to Our New Residents
Four new first year residents will begin their pathology training this year, as well as a new second year resident.
New first year residents include:
- Mariam Priya Alexander, MD — Chrisrian Medical College; Vellore, India
- Josenia (Joy) N.M. Tan, M.D — Far Eastern University; Philippines
- Yanelba Toribi — Boston University School of Medicine; Boston, MA
- Luisa Y.A. Watts — University of Miami School of Medicine; Miami, FL
Our current new second year resident is
- Hao, Wu, MD, PhD —Xian Medical University; Xian, China
More News
- Sandy Rolfe (Sherr Lab) successfully defended her thesis, “Activation and Roles of the Aryl hydrocarbon Receptor in Mammary Tumorgenesis” on March 24th. Congratulations!
- Devin Horton, PhD (Remick Lab) successfully defended her thesis on March 25th at the University of Michigan, Department of Molecular and Cellular Pathology. The title of her dissertation is “REGULATION OF CYTOKINES AND CHEMOKINES DURING THE PROGRESSION OF ACUTE INFLAMMATION IN THE HUMAN WHOLE BLOOD MODEL” Congratulations!
- Kazem Azadzoi, M.D. has received the Pfizer 2009 OB/LUTS (overactive bladder/lower urinary tract symptoms) competitive award to investigate “The Role of Oxidative Stress in Bladder Muscarinic Receptor Dysfunction and Cholinergic Nerve Degeneration”
- The Tissue Dispensary (Transfusion Medicine in the Dept. of Laboratory Medicine) went up with full force on March 10th. The number of tissues dispensed is twice what was anticipated. Now all tissues issues used in Surgery will be properly inventoried and tracked. We expect the Joint Commission will consider our management of Tissue satisfactory. Dr. Mark Flomenbaum is the Medical Director for the Tissue Dispensary; Missy Cohen is the Medical Technologist in charge. Dr. Kroll would like to thank Dr. Karen Quillen and Kate Murphy for their precious input; Dr. Chris Andry for his organizational skills; and Janet Means, the Administrative Director of Laboratory Medicine for her enormous input and advice in bringing the Tissue Dispensary to fruition to provide exceptional care without exception.
- On March 18th, the Laboratory Information System was successfully upgraded to version 6.3. This accomplishment is a great step forward for the laboratory. This upgrade included both software and hardware and is a major advance for the labs and BMC. The downtime was 17 hours, overnight through two rush hours for labwork. So far Dr. Kroll has not heard of any major complaints from physicians. The consultants said this was one of the smoothest upgrades they had seen. Besides thanking BMC administration for supporting these efforts and IT for their assistance, we need to thank the entire staff of Laboratory Medicine, because everyone pitched in to make the upgrade successful and seamless (the whole project took more than a year of planning). Dr. Kroll would particularly like to note the efforts of Janet Means, Silvia MacMurdo (Supervisor of LIS), Dr. Nancy Miller (Medical Director of LIS), the members of the LIS team, and all the Supervisors and Assistant Supervisors.
- John Cho Lee , current Chief Resident, won the Ultrastructural Pathology Society Award at the Boston 2009 USCAP
25 Years of Service Anniversary
- Mary Jo Murnane, Associate Professor and Celia Slayter, Departmental Administrator were recognized for their 25th Anniversary of working at Boston University at a dinner at the Sherman Union on March 26th
Presentations:
- Nancy S. Miller, MD; Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology & Molecular Diagnostics Invited speaker, “Best Practices in Blood Culture.” At the H.E.R.O. Solutions Workshops (Helping to improve Healthcare Efficiencies, Results and Outcomes) a P.A.C.E.-accredited Continuing Education event Sponsored by BD Diagnostics March 24, 2009 Sheraton Framingham Hotel & Conference Center, Framingham MA
- Jackie Bouchard, PhD student and Lou Vaickus, MD/PhD student (both in the Remick Lab) had their abstracts accepted to FASEB 2009 in New Orleans and will be presenting posters Wednesday April 22
- USCAP BOSTON PHOTOS of Bethany Tierno and Brian McMillan with their poster at the Annual 2009 Annual USCAP in Boston, March 2009
- John Cho and former resident Dana Semmel with their USCAP Boston posters respectively
Publications- PUBLISHED:
- M Asmal, RE Factor, R Walensky. An HIV Infected Man with an Upset Stomach. Clin. Infect. Dis. 2008; 47:935-6.
- Nader Rahimi, Todd E. Golde and Rosana D. Meyer. Identification of Ligand-Induced Proteolytic Cleavage and Ectodomain Shedding of VEGFR-1/FLT1 in Leukemic Cancer Cells. Cancer Research 2009; 69: (6)
Publications- ACCEPTED:
- International Journal of Cancer: Murnane MJ, Cai J, Shuja S, McAneny D, Klepeis V and Willett JB. Active MMP-2 Effectively Identifies the Presence of Colorectal Cancer