December 2009

Pathology & Laboratory Medicine News Items

Bryan Belikoff, MD/PhD candidate has recently been placed on the Hematology Training Grant.
Grants:
- Marten Steffen’s, PhD recently awarded Grand Opportunity Grant (1RC2GM092602-01; multi-PI: Steffen, Kasif, Roberts) has been highlighted in an NIH news release. The goal of the grant, entitled “SciBay: A New Methodology for Scientific Collaboration and Gene Function Determination,” is to catalyze experimental validation of gene function for genes with no known function in bacterial genomes. This grant will implement the experimental validation model proposed by co-PI Rich Roberts, the recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of introns. We will form a consortium of experimental and computational biologists that would collaborate directly to test experimentally the predicted functions of high-priority genes of currently unknown function or specificity. This high profile initiative is our attempt to ameliorate a profound problem exacerbated by next generation sequencing methods. If one were to sequence a newly discovered microbe today, the percentage of genes of unknown function would be very similar to that obtained a decade ago. We anticipate that, in the near future, as the new methods become more widely used, and generate giga- and tera-bases of new sequence data, this problem will become quantitatively worse. It is therefore imperative that we develop both new methods and opportunities for determining gene function.

Marier Hernandez-Perez MD, one of our current residents, has a paper accepted for publication at The American Journal of Surgical Pathology Title: “Distinctive Association of p16INK4a Over-expression with Penile Intraepithelial Neoplasia (PeIN)Depicting Warty and/or Basaloid Features: A study of 141 Cases Evaluating a New Nomenclature.” Authors: Alcides Chaux, M.D.; Rolf Pfannl, M.D.; Belén Lloveras; María Alejo; Omar Clavero; Cecilia Lezcano; Nubia Muñoz; de Sanjosé Silvia, M.D., Ph.D.; Xavier Bosch; Marier Hernández-Pérez, M.D.; Elsa F Velazquez, M.D.; Antonio L Cubilla, M.D.