Giving Blueday, March 15, 2023

Drs. Corey Post and Nathan McCammon, 2023-2024 Chief Residents in the Department of Pathology, are pleased to announce that Dr. Ashley Brent will be joining the chief resident team as the Assistant Chief for the 2023-2024 academic year. Please join us in welcoming her into the new role!

It is with great pleasure that we announce Dr. Lakshmi (Priya) Kunju as our new Director of the Division of Anatomic Pathology (AP) effective Wednesday, March 1, 2023. We are grateful for all that Dr. Kunju brings to the table including her considerable experience with operations across the division and her willingness to jump in on short notice to ensure stability during this transition. She will work with department leaders and others to identify and recruit to her role as Section Head for Surgical Pathology and Medical Director of our gross room and histology laboratory. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Priya Kunju on her appointment as AP Director. Please also join us in thanking Dr. Liron Pantanowitz for his nearly 3 years as AP Director. He has been remarkably productive in his role and can be proud of a division that is among the VERY BEST team of AP faculty, staff, and learners in the world!

This year’s Blood Battle against Ohio State is October 27 – November 23.  Consider donating during Blood Battle to be a part of the fight to save lives across the state and country...and to beat OSU! To make a donation appointment, visit bloodbattle.org and click "Donate" on the homepage [...]

We are pleased to share that the Board of Regents today (Oct. 20) approved the appointment of Zaneta Nikolovska-Coleska, M.S., Ph.D., as associate dean for graduate and postdoctoral studies in the Medical School, effective Oct. 1, 2022. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Nikolovska-Coleska on her associate dean role.

The Department of Pathology is home to one of the nation's top Residency Training programs. While this is not a surprise to our residents, the quality of our program was once again reaffirmed by Doximity, which  ranked our program as #4 in the nation and #1 among public academic institutions. This is up from an overall ranking of #6 the prior year and maintains the top spot among publica academic institutions.  Doximity is the largest online professional network for physicians in the United States. 

Drs. Laura Lamps, Maria Westerhoff, and Angela Wu become the three newest Assistant Chairs in the Department of Pathology with a focus on Wellness, Staff Development and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion [...]

Effective July 1, 2022, Dr. Sriram Venneti, Professor of Pathology, was appointed as Scientific Research Director and Dr. Carl Koschmann, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, was appointed as Clinical Research Director for the Chad Carr Pediatric Brain Tumor Center (CC-PBTC).

We recognize Dr. Jolanta Grembecka on being named the inaugural Richard and Susan Rogel Professor of Cancer Therapeutics. An induction ceremony will be held later this year. Please join us in congratulating her on this honor!

As part of the ongoing series of renovations of the clinical laboratories at University Hospital, the Blood Bank Laboratory — and its landmark front window — will relocate about 135 feet to the east on Sunday, June 5.   A wayfinding graphic can be found here.

Congratulations to Dr. Kristina Davis, who was just elected Co-Chair of the Transplant Diagnostics Community of Practice (TxDxCOP) for the American Society of Transplantation (AST). Davis will assume her position as Co-Chair at the Amertican Transplant Congress meeting in Boston this June. She is replacing Dr. Evan Farkash, who will serve as Chair of this committee [...]

Dr. Riccardo Valdez, the John G. Batsakis Professor of Pathology and Director of Clinical Pathology, has been appointed as the Ambulatory Care Clinical Chief (ACCC) for Pathology.  While he has been fulfilling the duties of the role since just before the COVID-19 pandemic, the appointment was recently formalized.

Today is Match Day!  Match day is when medical students find out where they will be going for their residency training programs and the training programs find out who is coming.  In this year’s match, the Department of Pathology discovered that the following medical students will be coming to Michigan on July 1, 2022 [...]

The Department of Pathology recently selected Karen Barron (MT) ASCP, as its new Education Internship Coordinator. Learn more about Karen as she transitions into this exciting role [...]

Dr. Peter Ward, Active Emeritus Professor and former Chair of Pathology, was named “World Expert in Sepsis” by Expertscape on World Sepsis Day, September 13, 2021. To be named a World Expert, one must be in the top 0.1% of scholars writing about Sepsis over the past ten years. Ward came in among the top .006% of scholars in the world and the number 1 scholar on sepsis at the University of Michigan [...]

The Department of Pathology's 2020 Annual Report is now available online. In the report, you will read about the department’s tripartite mission of research, education, and patient care, and learn about the goals of the department’s Strategic Council [...]

For the last 18 months, faculty and staff have had to endure the renovation being done in the hallways of the University Hospital, which caused significantly longer routes to deliver specimens, social separation from teammates, and the usual challenges associated with construction. However, on July 7, 2021, the walls came down and completed another milestone.

In 2009, a shy, but extremely talented employee arrived in the Education Office of the Department of Pathology. “From the beginning, we knew we’d work well together and since then, our team has become like family,” stated Marie Goldner about Pam Howard, the Residency Program Administrator. This week, the Education office bids Pam a fond farewell as she retires. “If I had to choose what I appreciate the most about Pam, it is her incredible commitment to her work. That is not something that can be easily taught. I think it is a characteristic inherent in who she is,” continued Goldner [...]

Dr. Laura W. Lamps, the Godfrey Dorr Stobbe Professor and Director of Gastrointestinal Pathology and the director of the GI Pathology Fellowship Program, can now add President of the United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology (USCAP) to her list of titles. Dr. Lamps assumed this leadership role on April 1, 2021 [...]

This year's Medical Laboratory Professionals Week (MLPW) kicks off from April 18 until April 24, 2021. The department plans to celebrate with virtual events and activities for all those within the department! When did it start, and how can you be a part of it?  Continue to the article for more information [...]

Did you miss your chance to give blood during the UM/MSU Blood Battle?  We have you covered!  There are three more opportunities to donate blood and support patients in need in the month of March [...]

Congratulations to Don Giacherio, PhD, who retired July 31, 2020, following 38 years of service in the University of Michigan Department of Pathology. Giacherio completed his PhD at the University of Illinois in 1980, followed by a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship at Mayo Clinic. In 1982, Giacherio joined the University of Michigan Department of Pathology as an Instructor in Pathology [...]

Kathy Davis, IT Administrative Director in Pathology Informatics, retires after more than 40 years of service to the Department of Pathology. Over her career, she has contributed to lab information system software development efforts that have impacted the history of pathology informatics, both at Michigan and nationally.

The University of Michigan will begin a Sampling and Testing Program of asymptomatic students, faculty and staff for the virus that causes COVID-19 on September 7.

Please welcome Dr. Pantanowitz to the Department.

Graduating Class of Residents.

Graduating Class of Fellows and Clinical Lecturers.

Selections will be chosen in a virtual ceremony on June 20.

The Department of Pathology 2019 Annual Report is now available online. Our department continues to show outstanding performance and growth and the past year was another example of why our department is one of the best in the world.

In the report, you will read about [...]

Clinical Pathology Operations Director, Kristina Martin, MS, MLS(ASCP)^CM, has been named the recipient of the 2020 Recent Alumni Award from the Michigan State University College of Natural Science. Martin graduated from [...]

Resources and guidance.

Genitourinary pathology fellow, Dr. Eman Abdulfatah, recently received the International Society of Urologic Pathology (ISUP) Excellence in Urologic Pathology Award for her abstract presentation, [...]

Michigan Medicine Headlines recently asked for nominations of faculty and staff who amaze colleagues with their work ethic, dedication, and commitment to carrying out the organization’s mission. Among those recognized were the staff from the Rogel Cancer Center phlebotomy team [...]

PTM Therapeutics, Inc. celebrated on February 6th the signing of an exclusive license for an antibody (PTM-001) jointly from the University of Michigan and Emory University during a bell-ringing ceremony at University of Michigan Tech Transfer. The startup is [...]

The Department of Pathology’s Division of Quality and Health Improvement welcomes Ellie Mills, the new Quality Assurance Coordinator.

A new podcast out of the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office, in partnership with the Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology, provides education for the lay public and armchair detective. Drs. Leigh Hlavaty, Lokman Sung, Milad Webb, and Omar Rayes are your guides through the field of forensic pathology [...]

After a nationwide search, Allecia (Lisa) Wilson, MD, has been named the new Director of Autopsy and Forensic Services. Wilson follows the leadership of Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen. In addition to this new role, Wilson serves as Residency Program Director [...]

We are pleased to announce that Mike McVicker is the new Administrative Manager for Clinical Operations in the Department of Pathology.

Mike has worked at Michigan Medicine for over 13 years, kicking off his career in the Specimen Processing division [...]

It is with great pleasure that we announce Dr. Rajiv “Raj” Patel as our new Section Head (Director) for Dermatopathology effective February 1, 2020. [...]

Dr. Sean Li has been appointed to the American Board of Pathology’s (ABPath) Test Development and Advisory Committee (TDAC) for Clinical Pathology CertLink® for 2020.

Physicians appointed to TDACs are considered established subject matter experts in their subspecialties [...]

Mary Jo Bishop retired on December 13, 2019, after working in Pathology for 28 years! Mary Jo began her career working in specimen processing and ended up in surgical pathology where she was for the bulk of her career. Over the years, Mary Jo developed friendships with many in our department, which was evidenced by the strong turn-out for her retirement party on December 13^th. Faculty, staff, and department leadership all came to wish her well [...]

All faculty who serve as the Principal Investigator or one of the key personnel on an NIH award or pending proposal are required to review their new guidance and address the two parts below, as appropriate, by January 20, 2020 [...]

The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition (F99/K00) Award supports outstanding PhD and other Research Doctoral candidates who complete their dissertation research training (F99 phase) and transition in a timely manner to mentored, cancer-focused postdoctoral career development research positions (K00 phase). [...]

At 23 years old, Jeanette Jeffreys just knew she would work for the University of Michigan “forever.” She was hired by Suzanne Butch to work for the Department of Pathology Blood Bank. When her job was going to be eliminated by a computer, she was asked to stay on in the Pathology Office. [...]

Mark Schultz, PhD, and Andrew Lieberman MD, PhD, have published “Synthetic high-density lipoprotein nanoparticles for the treatment of Niemann–Pick diseases” in BMC Medicine. [...]

The Pathology Communications Team recently welcomed two new members:  Camren Clouthier, who joins the team as our Multimedia Designer, and Lidija Fremeau, who is temporarily joining the team as a Marketing & Media Assistant. [...]

Dr. Gabriel Nuñez, the Paul de Kruif Endowed Professor of Pathology, is one of the newest members of the National Academy of Medicine. The Nuñez laboratory has made ground-breaking discoveries in the field of [...]

The University of Michigan announced today a gift of $10M from Dr. Tadataka Yamada and Leslie Yamada to create a new U-M-wide Center for Global Health Equity. The Department of Pathology’s own Dr. Lee Schroeder has focused his career on global health, in particular, developing the essential diagnostics list for developing countries, understanding the current landscape within these countries, and finding the most efficient ways to improve access [...]

Congratulations to Steven L. Kunkel, PhD, on his appointment as the executive vice dean for research and chief scientific officer of the University of Michigan Medical School, effective September 1, 2019, following a nationwide search for the best candidate.  Kunkel previously served [...]

Laurie McCauley, DDS, MS, PhD, received the 2019 Stephen M. Krane Award on September 20th, 2019. The American Society of Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR) gives the award in recognition of outstanding achievements in basic, translational, or clinical research in inflammation and/or skeletal matric biology [...]

In November 2018, postdoctoral fellow Jay Vornhagen, PhD, was appointed as the first Department of Pathology Medical School Postdoctoral Trainee Senator.  The Medical School Postdoctoral Trainee Senate is a volunteer organization [...]

Drs. Wilson and Hlavaty take on new roles beginning January 1, 2020.

August 30^th is National Grief Awareness Day. We at the Department of Pathology understand that grief has no timeline and have a variety of programs in place that can help mitigate the grief of our staff, our patients, and their families [...]

Dr. Choi is an assistant professor and the Hematopathology Fellowship Director.

No stranger to the Department of Pathology, Dr. Kristina Davis now joins the department as faculty.

Collaborative work by Dr. Grace Wang, Dr. Bryan Betz, Dr. Paul Harms, Dr. Rajiv Patel, Dr. Dafydd Thomas, Dr. Jonathan McHugh, and Dr. David Lucas has resulted in a paper published [...]

The new Director of the Division of Education Programs joins us from the Cleveland Clinic.

Dr. Ulysses Balis has created a new web-based educational tool that allows users to upload cases and get real-time feedback on potential diagnoses. The web-based app, HistoQuery, allows users to [...]

Sarah Choi, MD, PhD, has been honored as one of ASCP’s “40 under Forty” program recognizing the future generation of laboratory leaders.

ASCP’s 40 Under Forty program shines the spotlight on 40 highly accomplished pathologists, pathology residents, and laboratory professionals under age 40 who have made significant contributions to the profession and stand out as the future of laboratory leadership. [...]

The Blood Bank’s John Ko and Phlebotomy’s Jennifer Slater will serve on the board of the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science’s (ASCLS) Michigan chapter. Beginning August 1, Ko will serve as President-Elect and Slater will serve as [...]

First-year resident, William R. Perry, MD, received a 2019 Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator Award at the 54th Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) Annual Meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah. The awards were established [...]

Two of our hematology lab technologists were first authors on poster abstracts at the XXXII International Symposium on [...]

Congratulations to Jolanta Gembecka, PhD, who is one of fourteen in the inaugural class of Rogel Scholars!  As part of the commitment from Richard and Susan Rogel, researchers will have the opportunity and freedom to pursue new directions in their work. Dr. Grembecka's research focus is developing [...]

Congratulations to Drs. Caroline (Libby) Simon and Helen Worrell for completing the Healthcare Administration Scholars Program. The University of Michigan Healthcare Administration Scholars Program (HASP) is a 20-month [...]

The Fifth Edition of Histology for Pathologists has just been published by Wolters Kluwer and Maria Westerhoff, MD, and Joel Greenson, MD, co-wrote the chapter on colon histology. The newest edition of this award-winning book is a comprehensive collection of normal histology written by anatomic pathologists for anatomic pathologists. The book is designed to [...]

Dr. Charles Parkos, Carl V. Weller Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology, has been inducted into the Association of American Physicians (AAP). Founded in 1885, the AAP is an organization of leading senior physician-scientists [...]

You will see some familiar faces from M4 rotations and the interview season.

The Department will have a strong presence at USCAP’s Annual Meeting in March.

Unique structure of circRNA makes it an ideal candidate for biomarkers – and it can be detected in blood or urine.

The Division of Quality and Health Improvement (DQHI) is hosting Be a Birthday Leprechaun on Friday, March 15^th in the Superior conference room at the North Campus Research Complex. Dress in your St. Patty’s Day gear and join DQHI to assemble Birthday Bags which will be distributed to kids in need [...]

More than 14,000 patients are in need of a bone marrow transplant. Join the Be the Match Registry and you could save a life [...]

Dr. Kathleen Cho received a five-year R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to continue her work in ovarian cancer research. High-grade serous carcinoma, or HGSC, is both the most common and most deadly form of “ovarian” cancer, although it is now believed that most HGSCs arise [...]

On December 12, Dr. Thomas Glover was recognized as the recipient of the 2018 Distinguished Faculty Lectureship Award in Biomedical Research. Glover, who is the pioneer and defining scientist in the field of common fragile sites (CFS) in human chromosomes, gave [...]

On Thursday, December 20, 2018, at 3:30 pm, the founders of InheRET, Inc., participated in the bell ringing ceremony at the University of Michigan’s Technology Transfer office. The event signaled the formal licensing of technology developed at the University of Michigan to the spin-off corporation.

InheRET, Inc., developed jointly by the Department of Pathology and the Department of Internal Medicine faculty and staff, has produced an online family health history questionnaire.  It interprets patient-entered data [...]

Second-year resident, Laurie Griesinger, MD, won both second and third place at the 2018 Winter Resident Research Competition on December 1^st at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, Michigan. The competition, held annually by the Michigan Society of Pathologists during their Winter Meeting, is open to [...]

Tomasz Cierpicki, PhD, has been awarded an RO1 with five years of funding from the National Cancer Institute for his grant application, Targeting NSD1 In Leukemia, to develop inhibitors of NSD1 histone [...]

Jiaqi Shi, MD, PhD, has been awarded a KO8 (Career Development Award) from the National Cancer Institute for her grant application, Linking epigenetic regulation and TGF-β signaling in [...]

The Department of Pathology is seeking a professional, experienced and adaptable Administrative Specialist to provide support for the Director of Finance and Administration.  The right candidate will hold a Bachelor’s degree or equivalent combination of education and experience, possess [...]

The American Society of Hematology (ASH) has chosen Dr. Russell Ryan as a recipient of its Junior Faculty Scholar Award in Basic/Translational Research. Established more than 30 years ago, the Scholar Awards program is one of [...]

A non-profit organization co-founded by U-M Department of Pathology Communications Specialist, Elizabeth Walker, is receiving the 2018 Hope Award for Innovation from RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association. Walker's organization, The ART of Infertility, uses art [...]

The Department of Pathology at Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, is seeking an MD or MD, PhD academic pathologist with a track record of accomplishments in a leadership role to head our academic Division of Anatomic Pathology [...]

Michigan Medicine is committed to the safest possible environment for employees, patients, and their families. All Michigan Medicine staff, faculty, trainees, contract personnel, vendors, and volunteers must receive an influenza vaccine [...]

The Fourth Edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) Classification of Skin Tumours has been released. Edited by David E. Elder, Daniela Massi, Richard A. Scolyer, and Rein Willemze, the book contains content contributed by the Department of Pathology’s [...]

The board of regents has appointed Steven Kunkel, PhD, as the interim executive vice dean for research and chief scientific officer [...]

Funding to Chinnaiyan supports evaluating new cancer markers that could become treatment targets.

Sethuramasundaram Pitchiaya, PhD, a research investigator in the lab of Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD, has received the 2018 Keith Frankel, Michael DeAddio, and Thomas H. Lee – PCF Valor Young Investigator Award for his proposal entitled Unraveling Molecular Heterogeneities [...]

Commitments to patient care and innovative technologies earn us top ratings.

Molecular and Cellular Pathology PhD graduate student, Andi Cani, MS and Postdoctoral Fellow Yashar Niknafs, PhD, were among the twelve recipients of the inaugural U-M Precision Health Scholars Award.  This award provides grants supporting precision-health research to applicants whose work reflects the far-reaching potential of precision health at [...]

Thomas Peterson started his career in U-M pathology as the midnight operations supervisor of the Laboratory Data Center. He was primarily responsible for overseeing billing, which was done overnight at the time. After four years, Peterson, who had a degree in chemistry and experience teaching [...]

In 1987, Lynn Forbes was taking the first year of medical laboratory technology classes at Eastern Michigan University when she received a letter. The University of Michigan was looking for students interested in filling open positions in Central Distribution, now known as Specimen Processing. Intrigued, Forbes applied. Soon after, she accepted [...]

Thomas Giordano, MD, PhD, the Henry Clay Bryant Professor of Pathology, has published an invited review article in a special issue of Endocrine-Related Cancer, celebrating 65 years of the double helix. In Classification of endocrine tumors in the age of integrated genomics, Giordano shares [...]

Congratulations to Asma Nusrat, MD, the Aldred Scott Warthin Professor and director of experimental pathology in the Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology, for her election as president of the American Society for Pathology for [...]

Dr. Gabriel Nuñez, the Paul de Kruif Endowed Professor of Inflammation & Immunology and Co-Director of Immunology and Host Response Program in the Michigan Medicine Department of Pathology, has been [...]

The textbook, Atlas of Non-Gynecologic Cytology, has been released as part of the Atlas of Anatomic Pathology series. The book was edited by U-M’s Associate Professor of Pathology, Xin Jing, MD, as well as [...]

Learn more about the incoming resident class, where they came from, and why they chose U-M.

New Clinical Pathology location serves Michigan Medicine patients and more

Congratulations to Dr. Nick Lukacs, the Godfrey D. Stobbe Professor of Pathology, Assistant Dean for Faculty Affairs and the Scientific Director of the Mary H. Weiser Food Allergy Center, for his nomination and selection for the 2018 MICHR Distinguished Mentorship Award!

Lukacs was nominated by his trainees and peers at the [...]

Congratulations to Dr. Celina Kleer, the Harold A. Oberman Collegiate Professor of Pathology, who has been selected as the 2018 recipient of the 7^th Annual MICHR Distinguished Clinical and Translational Research Mentor Award!

Dr. Kleer was nominated by her trainees as well as peers at U-M Medical [...]

Congratulations to Cindy Howard on her retirement from the Department of Pathology. Cindy first started in the department nearly 41 years and we thank her for all of her hard work over the past four decades. 

Talha Anwar is in the Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) and the Molecular and Cellular Pathology Program at U-M. He defended his PhD thesis, Regulation of EZH2 in triple-negative breast cancer, on Friday April 6, 2018 [...]

Please welcome our new Pathology Residents! 

• Margaret (Jiayun) Fang, Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University
• Efrain Gutierrez-Lanz, Autonomous University of Baja California Mexicali School of Medicine [...]

Dr. Ting successfully defended her PhD thesis, Notch ligand Delta-like 4 (DII4) induced epigenetic mechanisms in regulatory T cell function during pulmonary viral infection, on February 21, 2018. [...]

Clinical FISH Assays for TFE3 and TFEB Help Characterize Renal Cell Carcinoma.

Dr. Ulysses Balis, M.D., Director of Pathology Informatics, was recently quoted in CAP Todays' Newsbytes.  In the April 2016 news post, Dr. Balis advises on finding, fixing, and foiling shadow IT problems based on his experience here at UMHS.

View the full article online.

Dr. Dafydd Thomas is an author of the paper, Glycogen Synthase Kinase 3 Beta Predicts Survival in Resected Adenocarcinoma of the Pancreas, which was featured on the December 2015 cover of the Journal of Clinical and Translational Research.

Click Here to view the article.

April 24-30, 2016