Congratulations to Thomas Annesley, PhD, DABCC, Active Professor Emeritus of Clinical Chemistry on his recognition with an Outstanding Lifetime Achievement Award in Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine from the Association for Diagnostics and Laboratory Medicine.
Congratulations on the investiture of Annette Kim, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology, and Director of the Division of Diagnostic Genetics and Genomics, with the Henry Clay Bryant Professorship in Pathology. This professorship was established to honor the legacy of Dr. Bryant, who received his medical degree and completed his pathology residency at the University of Michigan.
To understand why some cancers successfully circumvent the immune system to grow unchecked, researchers turned to pregnancy. “In pregnancy, the immune system does not reject the growing fetus, so we know there must be mechanisms active in the placenta. In cancer, it’s the same thing: the growing tumor is not rejected by the immune system. It means the cancer cells have developed strategies to suppress immune rejection, same as in pregnancy,” said Weiping Zou, M.D., Ph.D., professor of experimental pathology.
The University of Michigan Department of Pathology was honored to serve as co-host of this year’s Association of Pathology Informatics Summit, held at Eagle Crest Resort in Ypsilanti, Michigan, May 20-23, 2024. Director of Pathology Informatics Dr. Ulysses Balis served as this year’s conference director, along with Henry Ford Health System’s Dr. Mark Tuthill, who served as co-chair, with incredible support provided by U-M's Beth Gibson, conference manager and CME coordinator, and the U-M Pathology Informatics team who dedicated hundreds of hours toward the planning of this meeting. This year’s Summit enjoyed an exuberant turnout, with nearly 400 in attendance.
There are times in many people’s lives that can be called defining moments. Moments when their lives suddenly take a turn, and the entire trajectory of their lives change. This was true for Matthew Iyer, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Surgery and Pathology.
A patient’s biopsy or other tissue sample passes through many hands on its way from the patient to the diagnosis. In many cases, the physician and nurses with the patient pass the tissue along to those who prepare it for transport to the laboratory. The transporter delivers it to the specimen processing area, where lab techs check it in and ensure all the details are correct and the specimen meets criteria for testing.
The Division of Anatomic Pathology in the Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology offers grant funding for faculty and trainees to pursue research interests related to anatomic pathology that may not otherwise be funded. One of these internal AP grant-funded projects, led by first-author Eman Abdulfatah, MD and senior-author Rohit Mehra, MD, resulted in a recent cover story in Human Pathology entitled “Extragonadal germ cell tumors: A clinicopathologic study with emphasis on molecular features, clinical outcomes and associated secondary malignancies.”
The 13th Annual Advances in Forensic Pathology Conference was held on May 16-17, 2024, at Weber’s Inn in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Hosted by the University of Michigan Department of Pathology, the well-attended conference packed the conference room with medical examiners, coroners, law enforcement, forensic pathologists, pathology assistants, forensic residents and fellows, and others.
With 20 subtypes of Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) listed by the World Health Organization in 2022, determining the specific type of RCC and the correct treatment protocol for patients can be daunting. Only seven of the 20 subtypes had been defined by specific molecular changes and the 20% of RCCs that are classified as non-clear cell RCCs (non-ccRCC), were primarily identified only by histopathologic features.
Congratulations to Celina Kleer, MD, the Harold A. Oberman Collegiate Professor of Pathology and Director of Breast Pathology Research, on her election to the prestigious Association of American Physicians (AAP).