May 2009

Pathology & Laboratory Medicine News Items

Announcements:

  • Congratulations are in order for our Residency Program which just received a full 4-year Accreditation from the ACGME! Special acknowledgement goes to Dr. Carl O’Hara and Bob Foley for their efforts!~
  • Our own Dr. Daniel Remick was featured in the New York Times April 7th Science/Health Section.  “House Dust Yields Clue to Asthma: Cockroaches”
  • April was National “Donate Life” month which celebrates the work of the New England Organ Bank (NEOB) and its collaboration with the Boston Medical Center (BMC). The department of pathology and laboratory medicine serves as the liaison to the NEOB through the Decedent Affairs Office, led by Chris Andry, PhD and Christian Kiriakos. A flag reflecting the opportunity to give the gift of life was raised outside the Moakley Building by BMC patient Mr. Cleveland Scott who had received a donated kidney and described how his quality of life had improved dramatically post-transplantation. Speaking at the well attended event were Lisa O’Connor, RN, Vice President for Nursing and Kevin O’Connor Vice President for Operations at the NEOB. We encourage all readers to register as an organ and tissue donor with the Massachusetts’s donor registry when you renew your driver’s license, fill out, sign, and carry an organ donor card and remember to share your decision with your family and friends. More information is available here.

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PHOTO: L to R: Diego Martinez, New England Organ Bank (NEOB) Liaison to BMC; Kevin O’Connor, Executive VP NEOB; Cleveland Scott (kidney recipient); Lisa O’Connor, VP for Nursing, BMC; and Dr. Chris Andry, Vice Chair, Pathology and Lab. Medicine

  • The Genome Science Institute is pleased to announce the recipients of the first annual GSI Seed Grant Award. GSI Seed grants are intended to support: 1) The expansion of research at Boston University by supporting new collaborations between groups with diverse expertise to address an important scientific question in genetics and genomics research. 2) The development of new and emerging areas of genetics and genomics research. Of fourteen applications, two from Pathology and Laboratory Medicine were selected following peer review of the proposals.
    • $10,000 Ellen O Weinberg, Barbara Nikolajczyk
    • $15,000 Jennifer Rosen , Stephanie Lee, Antonio de las Morenas
  • This year’s recipients of the Henry I. Russek Student Achievement Awards are in the Department of Pathology are: First Prize- John Meyers; Second Prize- Sandra Rolfe Congratulations to you both!
  • Dr. Walther Pfeifer has been officially accepted as a member into the Society for Hematopathology
  • For “A Conversation with Dr. Lija Joseph” go to Lokvani.com: the piece featuring Dr. Joseph is about half way down the page

Grants

  • Dr. Daniel Remick was recently awarded a new R01 grant NIH GM 82962, The Role of Cytokines in Sepsis and Trauma. Four years of funding were obtained to continue his investigations into the basic mechanisms of the septic response

Presentations

  • Madhu Jagannathan, PhD grad student has been invited to give an oral presentation at the June FOCIS Conference in San Francisco. “Toll-like Receptor 4 Engagement Blocks Inflammatory Cytokine Production by B Cells from Inflammatory Disease Patients.”
  • Dr. Steve Bogen presented at FASEB 2009 (New Orleans, LA), at a session sponsored by the Histochemical Society, April 19, 2009. “Formalin Fixation & Antigen Retrieval: Translating Insights To Clinical Innovation”
  • Dr. Steve Bogen, also presented at a Grand Rounds Seminar, Colorado State University Animal Cancer Center, April 6, 2009. “Probing Pathologic Immune Responses With Peptide Libraries”
  • Dr. Nancy S. Miller, Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology & Molecular Diagnostics, presented ”Commissioning a Retrofitted BSL-3 Clinical Laboratory — The BMC Experience” to the New England Microbiology Medical Directors Meeting, on 4/29/09 in Sturbridge, MA
  • Jackie Bouchard, PhD student presented a poster at the 2009 FASEB (Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology) in New Orleans, April 22nd:”Acute ethanol exposure aggravates cockroach-allergen (CRA) induced asthmatic responses.” Jacqueline Bouchard, Jiyoun Kim, Louis Vaickus, and Daniel Remick
  • Lou Vaickus, MD/PhD student also presenatted a poster at the 2009 FASEB. “Oral tolerance reduces eosinophil activation in a cockroach antigen murine model of allergic asthma.” Louis Vaickus, Sudha Natajaran, Jacqueline Bouchard, Jiyoun Kim and Daniel Remick.

Publications- PUBLISHED

  • D. Chinnappan, D. Xiao, A. Ratnasari, C. Andry, T. King and C. Weber. Transcription factor YY1 Expression in Human Gastrointestinal Cancer Cells. International Journal of Oncology; 34: 1417-1423, 2009
  • Chen ZY, Luo H-Y, Steinberg MH, Chui DHK. BCL11A Represses HBG Transcription in K562 Cells. Blood Cells, Molecules, and Diseases 42: 144-149, January 2009
  • John Meyers, PhD grad student has a new paper accepted to The Journal of Immunology, to be published May 1: Meyers JA, Su DW, Lerner A. Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and B and T Cells Differ in Their Response to Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterase Inhibitors. Journal of Immunology, 2009:182
  • Christine L. Lau, MD, Yunge Zhao, MD, PhD, Jiyoun Kim, PhD, Irving L. Kron, MD, Ashish Sharma, MBBS, Zequan Yang, MD, PhD, Victor E. Laubach, PhD, Joel Linden, PhD, Gorav Ailawadi, MD, David J. Pinsky, MD. Enhanced Fibrinolysis Protects Against Lung Ischemia–reperfusion Injury. Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery, 2009;137: 1241-1248
  • Gao, F., J. F. Ponte, P. Papageorgis, M. Levy, S. Ozturk, A.W. Lambert, H. Pan, D. Chinnappan, K-h. Cheng, A. Thiagalingam, H. M. Abdolmaleky and S. Thiagalingam. 2009. hBub1 Deficiency Triggers a Novel p53 Mediated Early Apoptotic Checkpoint Pathway in Mitotic Spindle Damaged Cells. Cancer Biology & Therapy 8(7): 58-66
  • Gao, F., J. F. Ponte, M. Levy, P. Papageorgis, N.M. Cook, S. Ozturk, A.W. Lambert, A. Thiagalingam, H. M. Abdolmaleky, B. A. Sullivan and S. Thiagalingam. 2009. hBub1 Negatively Regulates p53 Mediated Early Cell Death upon Mitotic Checkpoint Activation. Cancer Biology & Therapy 8 (7): 67-75
    **The cover page of Cancer Biology & Therapy (below) is a figure from Dr. Gao (a recent BUSM pathology graduate) and Dr. Thiagalingam’s second article

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Publications- ACCEPTED

  • CANCER CYTOPATHOLOGY: Y-0138-08 Version 2. Rachel Factor.: “Cytogenetics and FISH as Adjuncts to Cytology in the Diagnosis of Malignant Mesothelioma”
  • Dr. Martin Kroll’s manuscript 2008-0652-OAR1 “Use of multiple patient analyte samples results in enhanced detection of changing clinical status” has been accepted for publication in an upcoming issue of the Archives of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine

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