June 24, 2009
Pathology Researcher Receives NIH Funds for Human Microbiome Project
Assistant Professor of Pathology and Medicine Zhiheng Pei, MD, PhD, will receive $1 million NIH funding for the phase 1 study of a pilot demonstration project on microbiome and esophageal cancer as part of the Human Microbiome Project (HMP), one of the research initiatives outlined in the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research as a New Pathway to Discovery.
The Human Microbiome Project is intended to enable a comprehensive characterization of the totality of microorganisms and their genomes in the human body. Dr. Pei's work focuses on the type of cancer linked to heartburn due to gastroesophageal reflux diseases, the fastest rising malignancy in the United States. The recent increases in this cancer cannot be explained by any known environmental or host factors. He postulates that gastroesophageal reflux alters the esophageal microbiome and chronic exposure to an abnormal (altered) microbiome is carcinogenic. Initial research has shown that patients carrying particular types of microbiomes are more likely to have the early stages of esophageal adenocarcinoma than those who do not. Dr. Pei's team will sample the oral cavity, esophagus, and stomach to study the relationship between the microbiome from these body sites and esophageal cancer.
The research group of Dr. Pei is one of 15 teams selected by the NIH to conduct pilot demonstration projects on behalf of the Human Microbiome Project, along with Dr. Martin J. Blaser, the Frederick H. King Professor of Internal Medicine, chair of the Department of Medicine, and professor of microbiology, who is conducting another HMP study on the evaluation of the cutaneous microbiome in psoriasis.
June 19, 2009
2009 Department of Pathology Residents Day
The Twenty-First Annual Pathology Residents' Day Lecture "Metabolic Liver Disease in Man and Mouse" was delivered on June 18, 2009, by Milton Finegold, M.D., Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, in honor of the sixteen Department of Pathology graduating residents and fellows.
The festivities also included awards presented by the Director of the Residency Program, Dr. Michael Bannan. Professor of Pediatric Pathology Alba Greco, M.D., and Assistant Professor of Pathology Daisuke Nonaka, M.D., were co-recipients of the 2009 Attending of the Year in Anatomic Pathology Award. Clinical Associate Professor Bruce Hanna, Ph.D., received the 2009 Attending of the Year in Clinical Pathology Award. Robert Lin, M.D., a Hematopathology Fellow in the Department, was selected by his peers as the Pathology Fellow of the Year.
Please join us in extending our warmest congratulations to the award recipients and our best wishes to all of our departing residents and fellows!
June 9, 2009
Department of Pathology Faculty Members on 2009 List of New York’s Best Doctors
Jonathan Melamed, M.D., Associate Professor of Pathology, and David Zagzag, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Pathology and Neurology, have been selected as two of New York's "Best Doctors" in New York magazine's twelfth annual Best Doctors survey. The honor to be ranked as one of the top 1,107 physician specialists in the metropolitan area is based on an extensive process of peer review conducted among medical professionals in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
This is Dr. Melamed's fifth consecutive year to be included in the list. Along with many other duties, Dr. Melamed serves as the director of the prostate cancer tissue bioresource at NYU and the urologic pathology service in the Department of Pathology. His research work focuses on studies of new markers on human tissue using tissue microarrays and his clinical interests are in the early pathogenesis of prostate cancer and in diagnostic modalities that assist in surgical pathology.
Dr. Zagzag is director of the microvascular and molecular neuro-oncology laboratory and the director of the human brain tumor bank at NYU Langone Medical Center. His research specialties include the pathology of the nervous system and mechanisms of cerebral vasculogenesis and angiogenesis.
Drs. Melamed and Zagzag are among more than 100 physicians affiliated with the NYU Langone Medical Center and its hospitals to be included in New York magazine's annual list of best doctors in the New York metropolitan area.
June 5, 2009
A Warm Welcome to Our New Pathology Residents and Fellows
The Department of Pathology is pleased to welcome our newest colleagues! We will be hosting a welcome breakfast for all incoming 2009 residents and fellows, open to all departmental residents, fellows, faculty, and staff. Please come and join us on Wednesday, July 1, from 8:00 a.m. - 9:00 a.m. in the Skirball 5th Floor Conference Room. There will also be a welcome reception for new residents and fellows on Monday, July 20, from 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. in the Smilow Ground Floor lobby. All departmental residents, fellows, faculty, and staff are invited to attend.
May 14, 2009
Pathology Residents Day 2009 is Thursday, June 18
This year's Pathology Residents' Day is Thursday, June 18—a day to celebrate our graduating residents! The Twenty-First Annual Pathology Residents' Day Lecture "Metabolic Liver Disease in Man and Mouse" will be delivered by Milton Finegold, M.D., Professor of Pathology and Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, at 4pm in the Skirball 3rd Floor Seminar Room, in honor of our six graduating PGY-4 residents and ten graduating clinical fellows. The six residents who are currently in their fourth post-graduate year have been accepted to the following 2009-10 positions and programs:
Alice Laser will continue with a Cytopathology Fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Jordan Laser will continue with a Molecular Genetics Pathology Fellowship at Mount Sinai Hospital.
Jonathan Ralston will continue with a Dermatopathology Fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Virginia Richards will work at the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of Virginia and begin a Forensic Pathology Fellowship in July 2010.
Huihui Ye will continue with a Genitourinary Fellowship at Johns Hopkins University.
Samiah Zafar will continue with a Hematopathology Fellowship at NYU Langone Medical Center.
Please join us in extending our warmest congratulations to all of our residents for their successful placements and our best wishes for their future careers!
April 20, 2009
Department of Pathology Professor Selected as Teacher of the Year
Once again, the Teacher of the Year is from the ranks of our Department. The NYU School of Medicine Class of 2011 selected Assistant Professor of Pathology Amy Rapkiewicz as Teacher of the Year. Dr. Rapkiewicz taught the modules Host Defense and Mechanisms of Disease both in lectures and in small-group sessions. She also set up a number of online learning modules that proved very successful for students. In the nomination as Teacher of the Year by the class, Dr. Rapkiewicz was commended for her extraordinary ability to provide insightful, interesting, and exciting lectures and for her dedication as an outstanding mentor to medical students. The Class of 2011 also praised her as one of the few professors who take the perspective of medical students into account by focusing on the truly important aspects of relevance to medical students rather than a survey of the facts in their lectures. In past years, medical students recognized Drs. David Roth and David Zagzag with this great honor.
By coincidence, Dr. Rapkiewicz was also recently featured in the New York Times multi-media series "One in 8 Million" in her capacity as director of pathology and autopsies at Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan.
March 26, 2009
Iannis Aifantis Selected as Howard Hughes Medical Institute Early Career Scientist
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced today that Dr. Iannis Aifantis, Associate Professor of Pathology, is among the 50 top scientists who will be appointed as the first Early Career Scientists of the Institute in September 2009. Each HHMI Early Career Scientist will receive a six-year appointment to the Institute and, along with it, the freedom to explore his or her best ideas without worrying about where to find the money to fund those experiments. The new research initiative is intended to provide much-needed support to some of the nation’s best junior faculty at a critical stage in their careers. This honor establishes Dr. Aifantis, who joined the Department of Pathology in 2006, as one of the foremost and most outstanding young scientists in the country.
The 50 successful appointees were selected from a pool of over 2,000 applicants on the basis of their potential for significant research productivity and originality. They are expected to use HHMI’s investment of approximately $200 million into this new initiative as an opportunity to move in new directions, including some with a high degree of scientific risk that would be unlikely to be funded by other organizations. Like HHMI Investigators, the Early Career Scientists will have the freedom to explore and, if necessary, change direction in their research. They are granted the flexibility to follow their scientific lines of inquiry and take risks rather than relying on specific research grants for predefined projects.
Dr. Aifantis has made majors strides toward the understanding and the development of new treatments for T-cell acute lymphocytic leukemia, a common form of leukemia in children. He recently discovered a molecular door by which T cells, the soldiers of the immune system, slip into spinal fluid and the brain after they become malignant. Blocking this process could save thousands of lives each year. Dr. Aifantis is now testing hundreds of potential drugs that might slam that door shut and prevent malignant T cells from reaching the nervous system. At the same time, he is learning what goes awry in blood stem cells that transform into leukemic T cells. Such insights may provide new opportunities to combat deadly blood cancers.
Before joining NYU, Dr. Aifantis worked under the direction of Dr. Harald von Boehmer, both as graduate student at the Necker Institute in Paris and as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Medical School. After the completion of his post-doctoral fellowship, Dr. Aifantis established his own laboratory in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago. In 2006 he was recruited to join the NYU Department of Pathology’s translational research efforts as a faculty member of the Program in Immunology because of his promise to become an international leader in the fields of hematopoiesis and leukemia. With this appointment, Dr. Aifantis has become the third HHMI appointee from the NYU Department of Pathology, following Dr. Dan Littman, the Helen L. and Martin S. Kimmel Professor of Molecular Immunology and Professor of Pathology and Microbiology, and Dr. Michele Pagano, the May Ellen and Gerald Jay Ritter Professor of Oncology and Professor of Pathology.
Photo: David B. Roth
March 19, 2009
A Warm Welcome to the 2009 Entering Class of Pathology Residents
The NYU Department of Pathology is excited to welcome the eight members who will be entering the Pathology Resident Training Class in July 2009 from a very strong pool of applicants:
Ali Chaudhri, M.D., State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine
Christopher Hale, M.D., Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons
Xiangtian Kong, M.D., Beijing Medical University
Fumiko Konno, M.D., Drexel University College of Medicine
Amanda Krausert, M.D., University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health
Lili Lee, M.D., State University of New York Downstate Medical Center College of Medicine
Qinghu Ren, M.D., Beijing Medical University, Ph.D., University of Rochester
Marianna Shvartsbeyn, M.D., University of Maryland School of Medicine
We were very impressed with the outstanding caliber of this year's entering pathology residents. Please join us in extending a warm welcome to our future colleagues!
March 12, 2009
Professor of Pathology wins Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology Award
Dr. Jerry Waisman, Professor of Pathology, was chosen as this year's winner of the annual Yolanda Oertel Interventional Cytopathology Award given by the Papanicolaou Society of Cytopathology at the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Meeting in Boston. The award acknowledges the contribution of a pathologist to the promotion of a fine needle aspiration service and to the training of individuals in the fine needle aspiration technique. Dr. Waisman founded the fine needle aspiration service at NYU in the 1980s after a sabbatical in the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, were he studied the technique of fine needle aspiration. He has since trained numerous residents and students in the technique.
March 9, 2009
Department of Pathology Vice-Chair for Science Comments on New Embryonic Stem-Cell Policy
The Vice Chair of Science in the Department of Pathology and the Dr. Louis A. Schneider Professor of Molecular Pathology and Professor of Microbiology, David E. Levy, Ph.D., offered his perspective on President Barack Obama's decision to revert the ban on stem-cell funding for a news report by WCBS New York on March 9, 2009. In the news feature Dr. Levy noted that stem cells provide a "very promising road to better understanding human disease and potentially very innovative treatments." He continued, "there is a huge amount of potential but we don't know when or how that will be realized... what we do know is that if we can't do the research, if we can't do the basic investigation, we can never translate that into therapies for human disease."
A video of the news broadcast can be viewed on the WCBS 2 New York web site.
Dr. Levy was also interviewed by WNYC New York on the same topic.
March 4, 2009
Special Announcement for all Pathology Faculty Members: NIH Challenge Grant Proposals
Important Announcement for all Department of Pathology Faculty
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act or ARRA) is a Federal public law passed by the 111th United States Congress and signed into law by President Barack Obama on February 17, 2009. The Recovery Act makes supplemental appropriations for job preservation and creation, infrastructure investment, energy efficiency and science, assistance to the unemployed, and State and local fiscal stabilization, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2009, and for other purposes.
As part of the Recovery Act, NIH has designated at least $200 million in FYs 2009 - 2010 for a new initiative called the NIH Challenge Grants in Health and Science Research, to fund 200 or more grants, contingent upon the submission of a sufficient number of scientifically meritorious applications.
This new program will support research on Challenge Topics which address specific scientific and health research challenges in biomedical and behavioral research that will benefit from significant 2-year jumpstart funds. Challenge Areas, defined by the NIH, focus on specific knowledge gaps, scientific opportunities, new technologies, data generation, or research methods that would benefit from an influx of funds to quickly advance the area in significant ways. The research in these areas should have a high impact in biomedical or behavioral science and/or public health.
The Department of Pathology urges all faculty members to submit possible challenge grant proposals by the ARRA deadline of April 27, 2009. For more information see:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge_award/
The Challenge Grant Applications Omnibus is available as a PDF:
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/challenge_award/Omnibus.pdf
The NYU Langone Medical Center Office of Science and Research also has a page on their website devoted to up-to-date information on the stimulus (ARRA).
March 2, 2009
Pathology Research Track Resident Selected for New Translational Training Program Fellowship
Lauren McVoy, M.D., Ph.D., a 2nd-year resident in the Clinical Pathology/Research Track and a Chief Pathology Resident is one of the first recipients of the inaugural Physician-Scientist Training Program or PSTP fellowship established at NYU Langone Medical Center. Dr. McVoy was selected for an Intra-Residency or Fellowship by the PSTP Committee on the basis of her promising interdisciplinary work as a specialized research track resident. Residents in the research track offered by the NYU Department of Pathology prepare for a career in experimental pathology by developing independent investigative skills in combination with diagnostic competency. The competitive PSTP fellowship adds at least one funded year to the period required for Board eligibility, so that clinical trainees can devote a minimum of 18 months to uninterrupted research with at least 90% protected time for research. The Physician-Scientist Training Program fellowship is intended to increase the cadre of translational researchers at NYU and allow for interdisciplinary approaches involving its faculty members while enhancing their productivity. Dr. McVoy's clinical interests are in microbiology. For her research, she plans to focus on in vivo analyses of antigen presentation and CD4+ effector T cell activation in mice infected with M. tuberculosis under the mentorship of Dr. Joel Ernst, the Jeffrey Bergstein Professor of Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Microbiology. The Ernst Laboratory was the first to characterize a T cell receptor transgenic mouse with specificity for a peptide antigen of M. tuberculosis and continues to lead the field in studies of antigen-specific CD4+ T cell activation and immune evasion in tuberculosis.
February 12, 2009
Stem Cell Research by Department of Pathology Faculty Receives Continued Support
A number of investigators from the NYU Department of Pathology are among those who will continue to receive support through research grants by the New York Stem Cell Science foundation or NYSTEM. NYSTEM was established to support stem cell research and its revolutionary clinical and promising therapeutic potential in the State of New York. Under the direction of Ruth Lehmann, Ph.D., the Laura and Isaac Perlmutter Professor of Cell Biology and Director of the Kimmel Center for Stem Cell Biology, the Kimmel Center received more than $5 million in funded 2008 NYSTEM applications and RFA-IIRP grants for projects related to stem cell research. The following members of the Department and their laboratory groups are part of the collaborative efforts funded at the Kimmel Center: Dr. Eva Hernando, Assistant Professor of Pathology, for the study of cell of origin and cancer stem cell of melanoma; Dr. Jane Hubbard, Associate Professor of Pathology, for stem cell niche formation in the C. elegans gonad, and Dr. David Levy, Dr. Louis A. Schneider Professor of Molecular Pathology and Vice Chair for Science and Professor of Microbiology, for derivation and characterization of dendritic cell lineages from hematopoietic stem cells. This support builds on a previous $1 million grant by NYSTEM to the Kimmel Center for the development of stem cell research, which included individual funds designated for the labs of Department of Pathology faculty Iannis Aifantis, Eva Hernando, Jane Hubbard, and David Levy, and core equipment funds for Peter Lopez, among 36 other researchers in the "NYU Stem Cell Group" from various programs and departments at the NYU School of Medicine and the NYU Langone Medical Center.
January 28, 2009
USCAP Gives High Ranking to NYU Department of Pathology for Scientific Abstracts Accepted
In the most recent ranking for the number of first-authored scientific abstracts accepted for presentation by the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) at their upcoming annual meeting, the NYU Department of Pathology has again been included in the top 30 of all institutions from which submissions were received. In preparation for their March 2009 meeting in Boston, the USCAP received a record of almost 2,800 scientific abstracts from over 430 different medical school programs and academic institutions. This represents an increase of 16% from last year's record submissions, so the Academy noted that the cut-off score for acceptance of the blinded peer-reviewed abstracts was remarkably high. The USCAP is one of the oldest pathology societies in North America and is generally viewed as the premier academic society of anatomic, surgical, and diagnostic molecular pathology. The scientific offerings from the annual meetings are also published in the two journals of the Academy, Modern Pathology and Laboratory Investigation, both part of the Nature Publishing Group.
January 9, 2009
Department of Pathology Staff Member Celebrated With NYU Langone Employee Recognition Award
The NYU Department of Pathology is proud to announce that staff member Andrea Hines, Executive Assistant to the Chair since 2005, has been honored with an Excellence Award from the NYU Langone Employee Recognition Program. The award celebrates employees who, through their consistently superior performance, have made outstanding contributions to their department, to the programs of the Medical Center, or to the overall mission and values of NYU Langone Medical Center. The qualities for which Andrea Hines—or Andy, as she is known to almost the entire Department of Pathology—was praised in the nomination submissions are: her outstanding commitment to professional responsibility, her leadership by example, and her positive attitude and work ethic. As the Chair of the Department of Pathology, Dr. David Roth, noted, "Andy Hines stands out as the perfect example of the competence and professionalism we need to achieve the goals established by this institution." A special ceremony by NYU Langone Medical Center senior leadership for all the recipients of this year's Individual Excellence Awards will be held on Thursday, January 15, in Schwartz Lecture Hall, from 2:00pm to 3:30pm. All are invited to attend.
December 16, 2008
Pathology Department Announces First Vittorio Defendi Fellowship Award in Pathobiology
The Department of Pathology is pleased to honor Megan McCloskey, a 3rd-year graduate student in the lab of Adrian Erlebacher, as the first recipient of the newly created Vittorio Defendi Fellowship in Pathobiology. The award will be officially announced during the Work-In-Progress Seminar on December 16, 2008. Under the supervision of Dr. Erlebacher, Megan McCloskey is currently investigating the role of antigen accumulation and transfer from follicular dendritic cells in the regulation of immune responses. The annual award is given to support a Pathobiology training program graduate student in recognition of his or her extraordinary promise and achievement in understanding the pathologic basis of disease. The Vittorio Defendi Fellowship in Pathobiology Award is named in honor of Department of Pathology Professor Vittorio Defendi. Dr. Defendi, a distinguished viral oncologist who presciently pursued research on the carcinogenic properties of human papilloma virus, chaired the Department of Pathology from 1974 to 2002 and served as Director of the Cancer Center of New York University School of Medicine for almost two decades. Throughout his career, Dr. Defendi has been a strong proponent of graduate and medical education, particularly emphasizing the interface between cancer, immunology, and disease pathogenesis. With the Fellowship in his name, the Department of Pathology proudly acknowledges the lifelong service of Vittorio Defendi to science, the department, and graduate education.
November 24, 2008
Pathology Provides a Hands-On Experience for High-School Students
The Department of Pathology recently hosted a group of 25 sophomores from Cathedral High School in Manhattan in collaboration with HealthCorps, a non-profit initiative to provide health education and mentoring for teenagers. The students were given a chance for a behind-the-scenes look at the work of the NYU Department of Pathology at Bellevue Hospital. The event was designed to offer young people a hands-on experience of human organs and allow them to gain singular insights into human health with the aid of pathologists.
Under the supervision of Department of Pathology Autopsy Director Amy Rapkiewicz, M.D., and Pathology residents Drs. Alice Laser, Jordan Laser, and Kristen Thomas, the select group of high-school students examined the effects of various diseases and conditions on human organs such as the heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, and brain. The students learned to identify signs of atherosclerosis, diabetes, cirrhosis, lung cancer, and hypertrophy, among others, and were able to compare healthy to diseased organs.
A large part of the work of pathologists, explained Dr. Rapkiewicz to the students, is to find out what diseases can do to a human body. "In a way, we are the ones behind the curtain," she said, as she detailed how pathologists get to see the effects of diseases and the results of healthy choices. This resonated very well with the Cathedral students, all of whom had already taken advanced health classes and logged in a number of volunteer hours before they were able to visit Dr. Rapkiewicz and her team in the autopsy suite, along with their teacher Ruth Greenfield and HealthCorps coordinator Jessica Kimmes. As one student noted enthusiastically, their trip was "a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity—you don't just get to walk in off the street and look in here anytime you want." Dr. Rapkiewicz has hosted high-school students four times already, including a visit by mostly Chinese-speaking students from a downtown public school for whom an interpreter was present. Dr. Rapkiewicz plans to make the collaboration with HealthCorps a long-lasting effort for public service by the Department of Pathology.
November 10, 2008
Department of Pathology Faculty Members Promoted
On Monday, November 10, 2008, seven Department of Pathology faculty members were honored at the Dean's Honors Day with appointments or promotions conferred upon them. Miroslaw Gorny, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to Professor of Pathology. Iannis Aifantis, Ph.D., was appointed to Associate Professor of Pathology. Sherif Ibrahim, M.D., Ph.D., was promoted to Associate Professor of Pathology. Susan L. Smith, Ph.D., was appointed to Associate Professor of Pathology. Ruliang Xu, M.B., M.S., Ph.D., was promoted to Associate Professor of Pathology. Herman T. Yee, Ph.D., M.D., C.M., was appointed to Associate Professor of Pathology. Panna Desai, M.B., B.S., M.D., was promoted to Clinical Associate Professor of Pathology.
September 18, 2008
NYU Pathology Residents Pass the AP/CP Boards
The Department of Pathology is pleased to announce that five of its graduating residents who sat for the American Board of Pathology Examination during the Spring 2008 administration have passed both the Anatomic Pathology and Clinical Pathology components and have now been certified as Diplomates of the American Board of Pathology. The new Diplomates and their current affiliations are:
Eric Yulong Han, M.D., Fellow in Cytopathology, M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
Steven Kang, M.D., Fellow in Transfusion Medicine, New York Blood Center
Yunjia Tang, M.D., Fellow in Hematopathology, University of Virginia
Hannah Wen, M.D., Ph.D., Fellow in Oncologic Pathology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
Michael Yang, M.D., Fellow in Cytopathology, NYU Langone Medical Center
We wish to extend our congratulations to all our new ABP Diplomates!
September 15, 2008
A Special Symposium in Honor of Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig
FRONTIERS IN THE MOLECULAR UNDERSTANDINGS OF THE COMPLEMENT SYSTEM, PARASITE IMMUNOLOGY AND VACCINE DEVELOPMENT
On November 6-7, a two-day International Symposium Frontiers in the Molecular Understandings of the Complement System, Parasite Immunology, and Vaccine Development will be offered in honor of the 80th birthdays of long-term department members Ruth Nussenzweig, C.V. Starr Professor of Medical and Molecular Parasitology and Pathology, and Victor Nussenzweig, Hermann M. Biggs Professor of Preventive Medicine. The symposium celebrates the lifelong devotion of Ruth and Victor Nussenzweig to epidemiology, immunology research, and vaccine development, as the Nussenzweigs' mark their birthdays and a combined almost 90 years of service to NYU.
Longtime collaborators, friends, immunologists, and malaria specialists from across the globe will present a historical overview of the significance of the Nussenzweigs' research from the 1970s to today and will also provide reflections on friendship and the global impact of the work of Victor and Ruth Nussenzweig.
More than forty renowned speakers have been invited to participate in the two-day event, to be held in the NYU Langone Medical Center Schwartz F Auditorium. The symposium will be introduced by Vivian Lee, Vice Dean for Science, NYU Langone Medical Center, and Lee Hall, National Institutes of Health.
Among the confirmed speakers are Norma Andrews (USA), David Arnot (Scotland), Marcelo Briones (Brazil), Joe Cohen (Switzerland), Karen Day (USA), Dan Eichinger (USA), Arturo Ferreira (Chile), Beatriz Fontoura (USA), Ute Frevert (USA) , Teizo Fujita (Japan), Celia Garcia (Brazil), Irma Gigli (USA), Jorge Gonzalez (Chile), Michael Gottlieb (USA), Bob Gwadz (USA), Stephen Hoffman (USA), Taroh Kinoshita (Japan), Judith Kloetzel (Brazil), Antoniana Krettli (Brazil), Kai Matuschewski (Germany), Edward Medof (USA), Robert Menard (France), Louis Miller (USA), Silvia Montano (USA), Maria Mota (Portugal), Elizabeth Nardin (USA), Michel Rabinovitch (Brazil), Jayne Raper (USA), Laurent Renia (Singapore), Mauricio Rodrigues (Brazil), Ana Rodriguez (USA), Pedro Romero (Switzerland), David Sabatini (USA), Julio Scharfstein (Brazil), Sergio Schenkman (Brazil), Photini Sinnis (USA), Moriya Tsuji (USA), Dyann Wirth (USA), and Nobuko Yoshida (Brazil).
A schedule for the symposium can be found on the Department of Pathology website calendar. For more detailed information, please contact Photini Sinnis, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medical Parasitology and Medicine
Tel.: (212) 263 6818 or email: photini.sinnis@med.nyu.edu
September 2, 2008
Tuberculosis Research by Department of Pathology Members Highlighted
The most recent edition of NYU Physician, the magazine of the NYU School of Medicine, featured two stories on Department of Pathology members Joel Ernst, M.D., and Suman Laal, Ph.D., both of whom are involved in the difficult fight against Tuberculosis, one of the most tenacious of infectious bacterial diseases.
Joel Ernst, M.D., the Jeffrey Bergstein Professor of Medicine, Professor of Pathology and Microbiology and Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, has been active in TB research for decades. The NYU Physician article offers an overview of Dr. Ernst's groundbreaking and seminal work that challenged many of the then scientific tenets on cells infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, including the finding that dendritic cells are prominent host cells for M. tuberculosis in vivo. It portrays in detail his research that focuses on questions of precisely how the bacteria are able to circumvent the body's immune response by delaying the activation of antigen-specific CD4+ T cells and by blocking macrophage transcriptional responses to interferon gamma.
The magazine also described difficult cases of drug-resistant Tuberculosis encountered at Bellevue Hospital and offered details on ongoing research towards the development of new TB tests. Among the efforts highlighted were those of Associate Professor of Pathology and Microbiology Suman Laal, Ph.D., who is working on developing new diagnostic tests for detecting tuberculosis more rapidly and more accurately, especially in patients who are HIV-positive. In collaboration with research colleagues in the United States and India, Dr. Laal's efforts have focused on delineation, cloning and epitope mapping of the proteins of M. tuberculosis that elicit antibodies at all stages of TB in order to develop an effective and cost-efficient urine- or serum antibody-detection based test. Her work has identified TB proteins that elicit antibodies prior to development of clinical disease and may therefore identify TB much earlier than current culture tests can. The NYU Physician article concludes with Dr. Laal's optimism that more effective detection methods will soon be established against this frequently deadly global disease.
August 11, 2008
Pathology Professor Returns to Science after a Long Absence
The work of Assistant Professor of Pathology Jane Skok, Ph.D., was recently featured in the People & Ideas section of the Journal for Experimental Medicine, which focused on Dr. Skok's return to science after a lengthy hiatus. This newer section in the journal, published by Rockefeller University Press, offers a portrait of interesting scientists for a wider scientific audience every month. Dr. Skok's research initially focused on the genetics of the first component of the complement cascade, a study which led to a promising article in Nature entitled "Distinct genes for fibroblast and serum C1q." The illness of a child, however, forced her to abandon her scientific work for almost a decade. In the article Dr. Skok reflects on the difficulties she faced when she decided to return to the profession and start again from "square one" by turning her attention to immunology. Now her work has been recognized by the National Institutes of Health, which will support her with a five-year RO1 Research Grant funding her project to study the coordination of recombination and allelic exclusion at IgH and Igk. The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation, a private foundation that supports new cancer research, has also been funding another project of Dr. Skok to determine whether there are stages of B-cell development which are particularly vulnerable to transformation and whether biological pathways can be targeted to reverse or interrupt the leukemic phenotype. As she notes in the interview with JEM, Dr. Skok places great value on collaborations and interdisciplinary science. She is currently collaborating with the labs of Department of Pathology Professors Dan Littman, David Roth, Michael Dustin, and Sherif Ibrahim, as well as Drs. William Carroll, Director of the NYU Cancer Institute, and Elizabeth Raetz from the Department of Pediatrics. In this respect, the Department of Pathology is fortunate to count Dr. Skok as one of its researchers who personifies the integrative and collegial approach outlined in our vision statement.
August 4, 2008
Philanthropy Donation to Pathology Professor in Search of New Alzheimer’s Disease Drug Treatments
A new research lab, working under the auspices of Department of Pathology Professor Dan Meruelo, Ph.D., will focus on the development of therapeutic drugs that might help prevent Alzheimer's disease or at least ameliorate its devastating effects. The multi-year project, part of a larger research study on Alzheimer's disease and its treatment, is made possible through a generous and significant donation by a philanthropy donor who wishes to remain anonymous. Alzheimer's disease is a brain disorder that currently afflicts more than five million Americans. The protein-misfolding disease destroys brain cells, causing severe problems with memory, cognition, and personality traits. At the present time no cure exists, but treatments for symptoms, in combination with the right services and support, can make conditions for those living with this debilitating disease more tolerable. Recent studies from the Meruelo lab suggest that Laminin receptors (LamR) play a significant part in the development of Alzheimer's disease and Meruelo and his team have concentrated their research efforts towards a full understanding of the role of these protein components and the possibility of treatments based on the lab's findings.
July 28, 2008
Innovation Award for Department of Pathology Pediatric Leukemia Research
Assistant Professor of Pathology Iannis Aifantis, Ph.D., has been selected as a recipient of the "Innovation Award" by the Alex's Lemon Stand Foundation to study Central Nervous System involvement in pediatric leukemia. ALSF emerged from the front yard lemonade stand of cancer patient Alexandra Scott (1996-2004), who, at the age of 4, announced that she wanted to hold a lemonade stand to raise money to help find a cure for all children with cancer. Since then, the charity established in her memory has raised more than $19 million and has awarded over 80 research grants. The proposal of Aifantis and his lab to investigate the molecular regulation of CNS involvement in pediatric ALL was accepted by the ALS Foundation's scientific review board, whose goal is to support the staff at leading research and treatment facilities nationwide. Innovation Awards are intended to provide investigators with critical and significant seed funding for novel and promising approaches in finding new cures and treatments for childhood cancer.
July 14, 2008
Department of Pathology Professor selected as Teacher of the Year
Another Teacher of the Year comes from the ranks of our Department. The NYU School of Medicine Class of 2010 selected Department of Pathology Professor David Zagzag, M.D., Ph.D., as Teacher of the Year. Dr. Zagzag was chosen for his outstanding teaching on the nervous system in the Mechanism of Disease module, an integrated module which introduces students to the principles of pharmacokinetics and pathological disease processes and emphasizes relating pathogenic mechanisms to the clinical manifestations of disease. This is not the first time that Dr. Zagzag has been recognized for excellence in pedagogy. He was the recipient of the NYU School of Medicine Teacher of the Year Award in 2005 as well.
July 2, 2008
Department of Pathology Faculty Member Jonathan Melamed Named One of New York’s Best Doctors
Associate Professor of Pathology Jonathan Melamed, M.D., has once again been selected as one of New York's "best doctors" by New York magazine's annual survey. This is Dr. Melamed's fourth consecutive year to be included in the list. The honor to be ranked as one of the top 1,434 physician specialists in the metropolitan area is based on an extensive process of peer review conducted among medical professionals in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Along with many other duties, Dr. Melamed serves as the director of the prostate cancer tissue bioresource at NYU and the urologic pathology service in the Department of Pathology. His research work focuses on studies of new markers on human tissue using tissue microarrays and his clinical interests are in the early pathogenesis of prostate cancer and in diagnostic modalities that assist in surgical pathology. Dr. Melamed is among 142 physicians at the NYU Langone Medical Center to be included in the magazine's annual list of the best doctors in New York.
June 30, 2008
March of Dimes Grant Awarded to Department of Pathology Professor
Brian David Dynlacht, Professor of Pathology and Director of the Genomics Program of the NYU Cancer Institute, was recently awarded a 2008 Research Award from the March of Dimes, a private charitable research organization. Dynlacht's research proposal was selected for his promising work which recently identified two proteins, Cep97 and CP110, as part of a molecular switch controlling the transition between the centrosomal and basal body functions of centrioles. Since most primary cilia in tissues act as sensory organelles whose dysfunction can cause disease, the study of the centrosome should provide important insights toward understanding cilia-associated defects. March of Dimes Research Awards typically provide three years of grant support.
June 16, 2008
Multiple Fellowship Awards and Foundation Support for Sarcoma and Melanoma Research
The work of Eva Hernando, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pathology, and her lab-team members has yielded a number of significant research grants in recognition of their innovative approaches. The Elsa U. Pardee Foundation funds investigators "proposing research directed toward identifying new treatments or cures for cancer research." The foundation recently awarded a one-year grant to Dr. Hernando for her research into the role of altered microRNAs in melanoma-genesis and progression. For her study of the role of TSC2 in sarcomagenesis, using mouse models and mesenchymal progenitors, Dr. Hernando had previously been awarded a Whitehead Fellowship for Junior Faculty in Biomedical and Biological Sciences. The Whitehead Fellowship assists faculty in their early years of independent research to conduct focused research projects in the biomedical and biological sciences. In addition, two of Dr. Hernando's lab members pursuing postdoctoral research, Dr. Miguel Segura and Dr. Maria Guijarro, have both been granted two-year fellowships by the non-profit Alfonso Martín Escudero Foundation and by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science respectively. Other currently funded projects on the study of sarcoma by the Hernando lab are "isolation and characterization of cancer stem cells from human leiomyosarcomas," supported by Edna's Foundation of Hope, and "mechanisms of mesenchymal transformation and leiomyo-sarcomagenesis," supported by an American Cancer Society Scholar Award. The lab's research on melanoma with a project on "miRNA expression profiling of Melanoma Stem Cells" is supported in part by a grant from the Concern Foundation.
May 27, 2008
Michele Pagano Selected as Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator
The Howard Hughes Medical Institute announced today that Dr. Michele Pagano, the May Ellen and Gerald Ritter Professor of Oncology in the NYU Department of Pathology, is among the 56 top scientists who will be appointed as HHMI Investigators this year. The selection ranks as one of the highest honors that can be bestowed on a biomedical research scientist, because HHMI offers its Investigators the resources and the freedom to explore their own lines of inquiry. Appointees are selected for their creativity, their innovative ideas, and their productivity. They are granted the flexibility to follow their scientific instincts and take risks rather than relying on specific research grants for predefined projects. In doing so, the philanthropy aims to encourage scientists to "extend the boundaries of knowledge" and to "pursue challenging questions" that make fundamental scientific discoveries possible.
HHMI Investigators are chosen through rigorous and intense competitions in a highly selective review process. There are currently about 300 scientists who lead Hughes laboratories at 64 institutions. Founded in 1953 by Howard R. Hughes, the aviator and industrialist, HHMI is one of the largest philanthropies dedicated to the betterment of human health. For the research support of its Investigators, the Institute is committing more than $600 million over their first term of appointment.
Michele Pagano was among those selected from more than one thousand applications. His research explores the roles that the ubiquitin system plays in cell proliferation, differentiation, and death, and how the deregulation of the system can cause cancers.
Since he joined the NYU Department of Pathology, Pagano has been working on the ubiquitin system, which is part of the cell's recycling organization. F-box proteins are subunits of the SCF ubiquitin ligase family of enzymes and are almost ubiquitous in the cell's workings, seemingly everywhere and doing everything. Ubiquitin is attached as a "tag" to proteins that have completed their cellular tasks or are worn out, misfolded, or in surplus. Once proteins are tagged by ubiquitin, they are degraded back into amino acids by cellular grinders called proteasomes. F-box proteins make sure that these ubiquitin tags are stuck onto the right "molecular waste." Thus, their job takes F-box proteins everywhere and brings them on the scene during the cell's most delicate operations. That's what would be expected from the cell's waste management system.
Yet, not everyone expected this family of orphan proteins to wield power over so many important cellular processes. Pagano's research group has revealed that F-box proteins help control cell proliferation, DNA-damage checkpoints, chromosomal stability, ribosomal biogenesis, protein synthesis, apoptosis, neurogenesis, and even the setting of the circadian clock.
Pagano has also found that many F-box proteins have connections to cancer. They play key roles in both tumor suppression and tumor activation. He discovered that low levels of certain F-box proteins were by themselves a warning that a tumor may be developing. In other cases, such as in breast cancer, Pagano demonstrated that high levels of one particular F-box protein represent a diagnostic sign that the cancer is of a highly aggressive form. Raising levels of a different F-box protein seems instead to sensitize tumors to certain anticancer drugs. As an HHMI investigator, Pagano intends to use his new position to refine the diagnostic signatures of F-box proteins and give more of these orphan proteins a home in the scientific world.
