Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine: New News Spring 2020

Please find below a summary of reported activities in the department. As Summer approaches we are emerging from a most remarkable experience of dealing with the SARS Cov-2 pandemic.  Our clinical laboratory team: Lab Medicine, Pathology and colleagues in the CReM brought clinical testing forward to support the hospital, in record time.  The group worked tirelessly to ensure we provided the best service possible to our patients and colleagues.  Our Cov autopsy team worked bravely, under challenging circumstances, to perform post-mortem studies and collect important tissue samples for research.  Our department is also actively engaged in archiving biospecimens to be made available for research and future equipment validation.

While these particular efforts have been ongoing, our department has also continued to provide outstanding clinical service, formal teaching, mentorship and research initiatives.

 I wish you all well and thank everyone for their hard work and commitment

– best wishes Chris Andry.

Welcome:

  • Please welcome our new 2020- 2021 residents: Drs. Claire Avillach, Sanket Chosi, Isabela Pereira, Lubna Suaiti and Katie Doonan.
    • Claire Avillach, MD– Faculté de Médecine Paris Descartes (2006)
    • Sanket Chosi, MD-Surat Municipal Institute of Medical Education and Research(2010)
    • Isabela  Pereira, MD – Faculdade da Saúde e Ecologia Humana(2012)
    • Lubna Suaiti, MD –Al-Arab Medical University Faculty of Medicine(2008)
    • Katie Doonan, DO -University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine(2016)
  • Tao Zuo, MD, PhD joined us from UMass and is a new pathology faculty member in the practice and assistant professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine
  • Lan Zhou, MD, PhD is vice chair for research, neurology and professor for Neurology and, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, she is also a new member of our department and performs subspecialty work on nerve and muscle biopsies
  • Samir Jana, PhD, as a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Dennis’s lab, beginning May 18th.
  • Weining Lu, MD, MSwas named 2019 Boston University Innovator of the Year:http://www.bu.edu/articles/2019/weining-lu-kidney-researcher-innovator-of-the-year/
  • Dennis Jones, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, has been selected as the inaugural early career representative to the FASEB Board of Directors.  FASEB represents over 130,000 researchers from across the world and has become recognized as the policy voice for biological researchers. Dr. Jones’s selection to serve on the FASEB board recognizes his status as early investigator who will contribute to the direction of scientific studies. https://www.bumc.bu.edu/busm/2020/05/07/dennis-jones-phd-named-to-faseb-board/
  • Daniel Remick, M.D., chaired an NIH study section to review K38 grants. K38 grants are a new mechanism to help create clinician-scientists, Stimulating Access to Research in Residency Transition Scholar (StARRTS)
  • Also Daniel Remick, M.D. was awarded an NIH grant, R21AI 147168 “Mechanisms of improved organ function following sepsis treatment with vitamin c, thiamine and hydrocortisone (triple therapy)”
  • Lan Zhou is excited to share a good news with you, her pathology book “A Case-Based Guide to Neuromuscular Pathology” has been published by Springer! job affiliation. https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030256814 A Case-Based Guide to Neuromuscular Pathology: Lan Zhou: Springer   www.springer.com

 

  • Erin Norberg has accepted the promotion to Assistant Supervisor in Point of Care
  • Please welcome Brad Couture in his new role of Assistant Supervisor, Microbiology
  • Stacia Cote, was promoted to Assistant Supervisor, Cytology
  • A research publication by Daniel Remick, M.D. reached a milestone in April 2020 when it was cited for the 400th The article: Six at six: Interleukin 6 measured 6 hours after the initiation of sepsis predicts mortality over 3 days was published in the journal Shock in May of 2002.
  • Research Awards from the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness BMC is the recipient of two awards, totaling $619,000, from the Massachusetts Consortium on Pathogen Readiness (MassCPR) to fund research projects focused on COVID-19. George Murphy, PhD, co-director of the Center for Regenerative Medicine (CReM), Chris Andry, MPhil, PhD, chief of pathology and laboratory medicine at BMC, and Nancy Miller, MD, chief and vice chair of laboratory medicine at BMC, in collaboration with CReM faculty researchers, will lead a project aimed at reducing the rates of false negative COVID-19 test results. Using machine learning, the team will develop an algorithm to interpret test results more quickly and accurately than current methods. The team will also develop new methods for pooling samples to increase testing speed.
  • From Weining Lu; our recent publicationhas been selected as an Editor’s Choice article on The American Journal of Pathology (See Editor-in-Chief Dr. Martha Furie’s email below and the article online:https://ajp.amjpathol.org/article/S0002-9440(20)30024-9/fulltext). In addition, there is a news release from BUSM about this work: https://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/buso-rsn050420.php
  • Lawreen Connors, PhD, Professor of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, has been named the Charles J. Brown Research Professor in Amyloidosis, effective July 1, and established by the estate of Charles J. Brown.

Congratulation Class of 2020

  • Residents
    • Shoreh Fazeli, MD; Dr Fazeli will be moving on to the Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital for  a General Surgical Pathology Fellowship
    • Andrey Prilutskiy, MD; Dr Prilutskiy will be at Mass General hospital for a Head and Neck Pathology Fellowship
    • Weiwei Shi, MD: Dr Shi will next be moving to Brigham Women Hospital for the Thoracic Pathology fellowship
  • Masters Graduates
    • Marcela Alvia, MS; is staying on at the VA to finish work for publication
    • Amanda Araujo, MS: Amanda’s future plans include maintaining employment at MGH in the Surgical Pathology department for the near future, and looking forward she is planning on applying to medical school in hopes of becoming a Forensic Pathologist. The only solid plan for now is working at her job and studying for the MCAT
    • Julia Breda Camessola, MS: She is hoping that the Sarah Mazzilli Lab will hire her for a little bit as she has to finish up experiments for a publication that she is co-authoring. After that is done, Julia’s goal is to find a job in clinical research in which allows her to do both bench work but to also have patient contact
    • Kyle de le Cena, MS: Kyle is working at BMC in Pathology as a Research Associate for Biospecimen Science
    • Kunlin Huang, MS: She is moving back home to China over the summer and finding work in a clinical lab
    • Claire Marcus, MS: Unknown at this time
    • Grace Marden, MS: Has been Promoted to Lab Manager in Dr. Maria Trojanowska’s Lab
    • Linzi Sun, MS: Linzi will be moving back home to China over the summer and finding work
    • Hoang Thang, MS: Hoang is applying for a job in Boston as OPT
  • Jessica Kenison-White, PhD Candidate (Sherr Lab) was a recipient of a first prize award at the 26thAnnual H. I. Russek Student Achievement Day. Congratulations!
  • The #ProtectYourCaregiver group hosted a very successful online art auction, raising over $44,000 for BMC frontline staff. Thank you to the group and their committee for putting together such an effort for BMC. The committee included BMC clinician Claire Avillach,  MD, MS Renal fellow, Instructor of Medicine (Incoming Pathology Resident)

Publications. Published:

  • Assessment of minimal residual disease using multiparametric flow cytometry in patients with AL amyloidosis.Staron A, Burks EJ, Lee JC, Sarosiek S, Sloan JM, Sanchorawala V.Blood Adv. 2020 Mar 10;4(5):880-884. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2019001331.PMID
  • Authors: Alexandra Rachel Greenberg*, Bertrand Russel Huber†, David Xianhong Liu‡, James Patrick Logue‡, Amanda Marie Woolsey Hischak‡, Randy Hart, Maureen Abbott‡, Nejra Isic‡, Yohei Michael Hisada, Nigel Mackman§, Richard Scott Bennet‡, Lisa E Hensley‡, John Hazard Connor: entitled “Quantification of Viral and Host Biomarkers in the Liver of Rhesus Macaques: a Longitudinal Study of Zaire Ebolavirus strain Kikwit (EBOV/Kik) The American Journal of Pathology
  • Bharath LP, Agrawal M, McCambridge G, Nicholas DA, Hasturk H, Liu J, Jiang K, Liu R, Guo Z, Deeney J, Apovian CM, Snyder-Cappione J, Hawk GS, Fleeman RM, Pihl RMF, Thompson K, Belkina AC, Cui L, Proctor EA, Kern PA, Nikolajczyk BS. Metformin Enhances Autophagy and Normalizes Mitochondrial Function to Alleviate Aging-Associated Inflammation. Cell Metab. 2020 May 5;. Doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2020.04.015. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32402267
  • Belkina AC, Azer M, Lee JJ, Elgaali HH, Pihl R, Cleveland M, Carr J, Kim S, Habib C, Hasturk H, Snyder-Cappione JE, Nikolajczyk BS.  Single-Cell Analysis of the Periodontal Immune Niche in Type 2 Diabetes. J Dent Res. 2020 Mar 18;:22034520912188. doi: 10.1177/0022034520912188. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 32186942
  • Guillon A, Arafa EI, Barker KA, Belkina AC, Martin I, Shenoy AT, Wooten AK, Lyon De Ana C, Dai A, Labadorf A, Hernandez Escalante J, Dooms H, Blasco H, Traber KE, Jones MR, Quinton LJ, Mizgerd JP.  Pneumonia recovery reprograms the alveolar macrophage pool. JCI Insight. 2020 Feb 27;5(4). doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.133042. PubMed PMID: 31990682; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7101156
  • Zhang W, Ji T, Lyon S, Mehta M, Zheng Y, Deng X, Liu A, Shagan A, Mizrahi B, Kohane DS. Functionalized Multiarmed Polycaprolactones as Biocompatible Tissue Adhesives. ACS Appl Mater interfaces. 2020 Apr 15;12(15):17314-17320
  • Zhang W, Ji T, Li Y, Zheng Y, Mehta M, Zhao C, Liu A, and Kohane DS. Light-triggered release of conventional local anesthetics from a macromolecular prodrug for on-demand local anesthesia. Nat Commun. 2020 May 8;11(1):2323

Publication. Accepted:

  • Anna Pisarek-Horowitz, Xueping Fan, Sudhir Kumar, Hila Milo Rasouly, Richa Sharma,Hui Chen, Kathryn Coser, Crystal T. Bluette, Dinesh Hirenallur-Shanthappa, Sarah R. Anderson, Hongying Yang, Laurence H. Beck, Jr, Ramon G. Bonegio, Joel M. Henderson, Stephen P. Berasi, David J. Salant, Weining Lu. Loss of Robo2 in podocytes protects adult mice from glomerular injury by maintaining podocyte foot process structure. The American Journal of Pathology, 2020. in press
  • ThyroSeq v2 Testing: Impact on Cytologic Diagnosis, Management, and Cost of Care in Patients with Thyroid Nodule” was accepted for publication at Authors include: Shoreh R Fazeli, Brad Zehr, Razie Amraei, Gianluca Toraldo, Haixia Guan, David Kindelberger, Stephanie Lee, Sandra Cerda
  • Jones.PhD, Parallels of Resistance between Angiogenesis and Lymphangiogenesis Inhibition in Cancer Therapy: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32244922