Reflecting on a Career Filled with Innovations, Leadership, and Lasting Impact

Congratulations to Dr. Kristen Lozada Soto, who successfully defended her thesis Claudin-23 Regulates Intestinal Epithelial Barrier Function and Mucosal Wound Repair on Monday, December 9, 2024, marking a significant milestone in her journey to becoming a physician scientist. As a Medical Scientist Training Program (MSTP) fellow at the University of Michigan, her doctoral work has unveiled exciting new insights into the mechanisms by which a tight junction protein, Claudin-23, regulates intestinal epithelial barrier function and mucosal wound repair. When reflecting about her PhD research contributions she states “it is so exciting to envision how this work can help pave the way for identifying novel therapeutic targets for people with ‘leaky gut’ or those with compromised wound repair, as is typically the case in people with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). This is exactly why I love training to become a physician-scientist - we get to connect the dots between discoveries and real patient care.”

Nearly 19 years have passed since a force of nature swept into the Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan and permanently altered the landscape. Dr. Jeffrey Myers’ time in the Department was celebrated on November 25^th as he approaches retirement at the end of 2024. Hundreds of current and former faculty and staff attended his retirement celebration, recalling his impact on their lives personally and professionally.

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Dr. Sem Phan, professor of pathology and renowned pulmonary pathology researcher, following a protracted illness.

Although Sem was a gifted researcher, he was also a kind and generous person.  He was a devoted husband to his wife, Katherine, and their two children, Nicholas and Louis.  He provided faithful and loving care for his wife during her illness.  His colleagues knew him as a gifted investigator but, more importantly, one who was always willing to share his expertise and (graciously) provide help whenever called upon.   He was a gourmet cook and a wine aficionado and eagerly shared these talents with his friends.  He loved music, especially his son Nick’s opera career, and delighted in the joys of grandparenthood. His love of travel took him to many countries around the world.  Dr. Phan was a gifted pathologist, an accomplished scientist, a consummate teacher, and a strong role model for all he encountered. He is leaving a hole in our hearts and department and will be deeply missed.

The family has announced  the following plans for memorial services.  There will be a viewing at 10:00 and a service at 11:00 on Tuesday, Nov. 26 at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, 3109 Scio Church Rd, Ann Arbor.

Another stellar symposium planned by our Molecular and Cellular Pathology Graduate Students 

The Department of Pathology's first Global Pathology Summit highlighted critical advancements in pathology to address global health disparities, with a strong focus on digital pathology, AI, and sustainable partnerships. 

15th Annual New Frontiers in Pathology Conference

On this Veteran’s Day, the Department of Pathology wants to extend its gratitude to those who served in our armed services, sacrificing home, family, comforts, and safety to help those around the world be able to keep theirs.

Today, we want to recognize the veterans serving in our department. While we have many more, these are the veterans who responded to our call. Please join us in thanking these and all veterans for their service.

Dr. David Cho's intersection with MCP Graduate Student Leads to a New Career Path

30 Years of Service Coming to an End

On a sunny October day, the Department of Pathology hosted its well-loved annual Fall Picnic at Wiard's Orchard in Ypsilanti, Michigan, drawing a large and enthusiastic crowd of faculty, staff, trainees, and their families. The event featured a delicious spread of food and an array of autumn activities, from hayrides to pumpkin picking, creating a perfect setting for community building and relaxation. Dr. Charles Parkos and Yvonne Beadle both highlighted the significance and success of the event, expressing gratitude to everyone who helped make the day enjoyable and memorable.

Dr. Brian Harry finds the right combination at Michigan

Faculty and staff from across the Department of Pathology gathered over the lunch hour on Friday, October 4^th, to honor their colleagues at the annual Workplace Recognition Reception. Employees were recognized for years of service as well as for going Above and Beyond in the performance of their duties over the past year. This year, Pathology recognized 106 individuals, with a team award going to the Inpatient Phlebotomy team.

Michigan Alumna returns as Professor of Pathology

With great sadness, we share the passing of Denise Flannery, a Medical Technologist Specialist in our Clinical Microbiology Laboratory. She began her career as a microbiology technologist in 1991 and worked at Providence and Botsford hospitals before joining us at Michigan Medicine in 2016. She was a leader in the bacteriology area of the lab, lending her expertise to complicated cases and improving laboratory procedures. A celebration of life will be held in honor of Denise on Saturday, October 12th from 12:00 - 4:00 pm at the Suburban Collection Showplace [...]

Congratulations to Dr. Rohit Mehra for being named to Hour Detroit’s 2024 Top Docs List for the second time. The physicians on this list represent those whose peers nominated them as the best in their field on a survey of physicians located in Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, Washtenaw, and Livingston counties. These nominees were then screened and selected by the Professional Research Services for inclusion as this year’s honorees.

Target: Improved Patient Care and Access, Enhanced Efficiency

Personalized medicine utilizes an individual’s genetic and genomic make up to treat and prevent diseases. The promise of personalized medicine continues to grow as new scientific discoveries uncover previously unknown features and drug sensitivities for tumors. In a recent study, Dr. Aaron Udager, associate professor of genitourinary pathology and co-director of our PSTP program, was co-senior author on a publication with Dr. Sofia Merajver, professor of epidemiology and internal medicine and the director of the breast and ovarian cancer risk evaluation program. 

An article recently published by the Nuñez lab provides an exciting discovery for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, and certain other autoimmune diseases caused by aberrant NLRP3. The research, led by Dr. Jie Xu with Drs. Joseph Pickard and Gabriel Nuñez, discovered that a common, safe, FDA-approved drug used to treat alcoholism and cocaine addictions, disulfiram, inhibits the production of NLRP3 inflammasomes. When NLRP3 is activated, it can cause inflammation leading to multiple health issues.

Congratulations to Carol Young, MLS(ASCP), clinical research project manager in microbiology, on her selection as the 2025 American Society of Microbiology’s Scherago-Rubin Award for Clinical Microbiology recipient.

This award recognizes an outstanding bench-level clinical microbiologist involved in routine diagnostic work who has distinguished themself by excellent performance. The award was established by the late Sally Jo Rubin, an active member of ASM's Clinical Microbiology Division, in honor of her grandfather, Professor Morris Scherago.

Five from U-M Pathology Honored in 2024

Researchers at the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center have uncovered a key reason why a typically normal protein goes awry and fuels cancer.

They found the protein NSD2 alters the function of the androgen receptor, an important regulator of normal prostate development. When androgen receptor binds with NSD2, it causes rapid cell division and growth leading to prostate cancer. The study, published in Nature Genetics, may suggest a new way to therapeutically target prostate cancer. The findings illuminate a phenomenon not previously understood.

Congratulations to Dr. Jeffrey Myers, A. James French Professor of Diagnostic Pathology and Vice Chair for Clinical Affairs and Quality, on receiving the Ward Burdick Award for Distinguished Service to Pathology from the American Socity for Clinical Pathology at their 2024 Annual Meeting.

Third-year resident Dr. Lauren J. Miller received the 2024 Dr. Phillip and Sandra Barney Resident Volunteer Service Award from the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) at this year’s annual meeting. If you follow our #UMichPath social accounts, you recognize her as @LJMiller_MD. You may have seen her providing Case of the Week (#COTW) posts or featured in our residency program video, conducting grand rounds, teaching medical students, and other department content. These are just a few ways that her volunteer service has directly and positively impacted our department’s communication efforts as we work to enhance the availability of educational and informative content. 

Dr. Rohit Mehra, Professor and member of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology (MCTP), and his international team of collaborators were recently recognized by the Asian Journal of Urology for the best paper published in their journal in 2023. This award-winning study is a literature overview of chromophobe renal cell carcinoma (ChRCC), the third most common RCC subtype.

MLS Interns Katie McGraw and Cynthia Nnko Rotate Through Pathology

Following his Namesake in Shaping the Future of Clinical Pathology

Family and colleagues join the celebration.

It has been a little over a year since the Department of Pathology began its journey toward a renewed culture by implementing the FiSH! Philosophy. One of FiSH! core principles to bring well-being to our department is the concept of bringing joy to the workplace through forms of play. The MLabs Division put FiSH! Philosophy into action on July 25^th as MLabs’ EMC² team hosted the Happy Little Painters event. The goals were simple: be welcoming, make it accessible, and embrace the inner artist (no matter how large or small). Artist Elise Martin came in to teach members of the department how to paint as a wonderful experiment (outside of the lab!).

Pathology Faculty and Staff Team up with Clinical Colleagues to Address Post-Surgical Kidney Injury

Help us welcome our new resident class, the Class of 2028!

With the passage of the 21^st Century Cures Act in 2021, patients were granted access to their medical test results without delay—often before their physician can review them. Pathology reports aren’t written with patients as a target audience and they contain complex medical terminology which can often lead to patient confusion and anxiety. To address this, researchers led by Cathryn Lapedis, M.D., M.P.H., of the Department of Pathology at Michigan Medicine, recently examined how a pathology explanation clinic, or PEC, could improve the experience of a small group of patients newly diagnosed with prostate cancer. 

A study from the University of Michigan Health Rogel Cancer Center furthers research that suggests the potential of developing new cancer treatments to target oncogenic transcription factors by indirectly affecting their ability to access enhancer DNA in chromatin. 

The findings appear in Cancer Cell.

Led by Arul Chinnaiyan, M.D., Ph.D., S.P. Hicks Professor of Pathology and director of the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology at Michigan Medicine, the research builds on previous work to find genetic vulnerabilities to treat transcription factor-driven cancers like prostate cancer.

The first annual Department of Pathology Art Competition has wrapped up with 13 fantastic pieces voted upon by the Wellness Committee! 

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. This award is considered the premier award of the Association and is granted as a "lifetime achievement" award for contributions to the field of clinical chemistry. Individuals selected for this award have made significant contributions in all aspects of clinical chemistry, particularly service, education, and research; have achieved international stature and reputation by virtue of their efforts; and have demonstrated long standing service to the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM, formerly AACC), either at the grass roots, national and/or international levels.

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Wednesday, July 17, 2024

Congratulations to Drs. Stephanie Skala, assistant professor of genitourinary, gynecologic, and surgical pathology and director of surgical pathology, and Jensyn Cone Sullivan, assistant professor of transfusion medicine, director of blood bank, and incoming director of the transfusion medicine fellowship program, on being named to the American Society for Clinical Pathology’s 40 Under Forty list!

Voting is now open on the top 40 nominees for selection to the Top Five, awarded in-person at The ASCP 2024 Annual Meeting!  Click here to cast your votes – and vote daily through July 22nd, no login or email address required.

It is with great sadness that we share the sudden and unexpected passing of Liz McCloud, QA Coordinator for Satellite Phlebotomy. Liz started at Michigan Medicine-Pathology in 2006 and grew tremendously over the years from that of a Patient Care Tech Associate to Associate Supervisor, and in 2017 she assumed the role of Quality Assurance Coordinator. 

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.

It’s a good thing in pregnancy – it allows the baby to grow. But in cancer, it means the tumor grows unchecked and treatments meant to stimulate an immune response are not effective.

Department of Pathology faculty member, Analisa DiFeo, PhD, has been named a 2024 Rogel Scholar by Michigan Medicine. The award supports exceptional faculty dedicated to achieving impact on cancer prevention, patient outcomes, and quality of life. Please join us in congratulating Dr. Analisa DiFeo on this prestigious award!

A Story of Recognized Achievement and Advocacy

Administrative Intern from the U-M School of Public Health

Team Enhancing Care Daily at U-M Health.

Dr. Matthew Iyer's Transformation from Programmer to Pioneering Cancer Researcher

A Closer Look at Histotechs in the Diagnostic Pathway

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.”

Pathology Takes Extra Steps to Ensure Patient Care Excellence