Department News

Congratulations to Clinical Microbiology Fellow, Dr. Travis Price, and Drs. Shaun Yang, Suki Chandrasekaran, Omai Garner, and Annabelle de St. Maurice on their publication Genomic Characterizations of Clade III Lineage of Candida auris, California, USA. The manuscript discusses the ongoing Candida auris outbreak in LA that’s on Emerging Infectious Diseases, which shed lights on the current public health crisis in Southern California, especially among long-term care patients, and provided important information for diagnosis and treatment of C. auris. Read more here. 

Congratulations Drs. Travis Price, Suki Chandrasekaran, Omai Garner, and Shaun Yang on their publication Performance Characteristics of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 RT-PCR Tests in a Single Health System: Analysis of >10,000 Results from Three Different Assays. The manuscript highlights a performance comparison of several widely used COVID-19 PCR tests, as well as clinically significant characteristics of COVID-19 molecular testing. Read more here.

We are honored to announce this year’s recipients of the 2021 Distinguished Career Award, the Excellence in Leadership (EXCEL) Award, and the Rising Star Award. Each year, the Administrative Management Group (AMG) shines the spotlight on employees who have been dedicated to the pursuit of excellence in their careers at UCLA. We received many outstanding nominations this year.

Congratulations to the following 2021 AMG award recipients: 

For the Distinguished Career Award: 

Ronke Epps, Chief Administrative Officer, Mathematics 

For the Excellence in Leadership (EXCEL) Award: 

Mark Ramseyer, Program Director, Business Management & Legal Programs, UCLA Extension 

For the Rising Star Award:

Alexander Martin, Director of Operations for Anatomical Pathology, Pathology & Laboratory Medicine 

All award nominees will be recognized at the virtual AMG event scheduled for April 21, 2021, from 12 – 1 p.m. If you would like to attend please RSVP. To view the list of nominees, visit the AMG website.We look forward to celebrating the extraordinary achievements of this year’s recipients of the 2021 AMG Awards.  

We extend congratulations to the Division of Transfusion Medicine on their two recent collaborations and publications. 

Congratulations to Drs. Alyssa Ziman, Andrea McGonigle, and Dawn Ward and UCLA collaborator Jennifer Nguygen on their manuscript How do we implement pathogen reduction technology, while maintaining an adequate platelet inventory for our patients?  This manuscript highlights their experience with pathogen reduction for platelet products. In addition to the manuscript, this study was selected as an oral abstract presentation at the 2018 annual American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) meeting. 

Congratulations to Drs. Dawn Ward, Alyssa Ziman, and Shohei Ikoma along with collaborators, Meg Furukawa, Ashely Busuttil, Jeff Mayne, Robin Clarke, and Kevin Baldwin, on their manuscript Optimizing Inpatient Blood Utilization Using Real-Time Clinical Decision Support. This manuscript highlights the collaborative effort between transfusion medicine, hospitalists, and physician informatics to improve RBC utilization.  This project was recognized as an ASCP 2019 Choosing Wisely Champion and was one of the case studies when UCLA Health was named a 2018 HIMSS Davies Enterprise Award recipient. 

We are grateful for the division’s continued innovation and look forward to their future work. 

Congratulations to Dr. Lily Zhang and Dr. Huihui Ye on receiving OCRC funding for their project titled Transcriptional Inhibition of TMPRSS2/Viral Entry Proteins and Altered Lipid Metabolism in Lung Cells by Antiandrogens as a Therapeutic Strategy for COVID-19! The goal of the project is to study an already established FDA-approved drug used to treat prostate cancer to be utilized as a viable treatment for COVID-19.They will be presenting their work on April 16 at 12:00 PM. Register here. 

Congratulations Dr. Bogdan Pasaniuc, along with UCLA collaborators Drs. Daniel Geschwind, and Manish Butte on receiving OCRC funding to study genetics’ role in COVID-19 susceptibility, and for publishing their first paper on their results! By partnering with the University of California’s five other medical centers, they will be able to analyze genetic data from thousands of COVID-19 patients with diverse backgrounds. The results of their findings could generate tools to identify the most vulnerable and COVID-19 treatments tailored to an individual’s particular genetic risk. We are excited to see these important and interesting results. Please see the paper and/or read more here.

Congratulations to Drs. Ting Zhang, Shino Magaki, and Harry Vinters on receiving funding for their project, Understanding the Molecular Neuropathogenesis of COVID-19. This project will use novel and valuable autopsy brain specimens to provide unique insights on the potential disease mechanisms as well as therapeutic avenues for the neurological deficits of COVID-19. We look forward to seeing their results.

We are grateful for the creativity and productivity of these and all our faculty and trainees. 

We are very pleased to announce that Alex Martin, Director of Operations for Anatomic Pathology, has been selected as the UCLA Administrative Management Group’s 2021 Rising Star Award recipient. The Rising Star Award is designed to recognize employees who seek career-development opportunities, inspire new ideas, and are committed to the University’s mission of teaching, research, and public service. Alex has proven to be an outstanding role model who exemplifies leadership in self-development and career growth. Congratulations, Alex!

We are pleased to announce the California Department of Public Health has contracted with Dr. Xinmin Li and the Technology Center for Genomics & Bioinformatics (TCGB) in a sequencing initiative for genomic surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants (COVIDNet Project) in an effort to quickly identify existing and new variants and control the COVID-19 pandemic. TCGB sequences 768-960 samples from California COVID patients every week starting from March 1, 2021.

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Nelson and Dr. Sarah Dry on being named to Los Angeles Magazine’s 2021 list of “Top Doctors” in Los Angeles! The results are obtained via a Los Angeles Magazine survey which asked physicians in Los Angeles County to identify doctors they considered to be at the top of their fields. Respected by their colleagues throughout Los Angeles and around the world, our physicians are trusted by patients and the community for their expert and compassionate care.

To view the Los Angeles Magazine’s “Top Doctors” list, visit lamag.com/top-doctors.

Dr. Elaine Reed and Dr. Michael Yeaman of Harbor-UCLA were featured in an article from the UCLA Newroom on their study regarding antibiotic resistance in MRSA “superbug” infections.

Read the full story here.

Congratulations to Dr. Rebecca Sosa, Clinical Post Doctorate Immunogenetics Fellow, and co-authors Dr. Bita Naini, Dr. David Gjertson, Dr. Elaine Reed, and Dr. Maura Rossetti, on their article “Disulfide High-Mobility Group Box 1 Drives Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury in Human Liver Transplantation” being featured on the cover of Hepatology.

Read the full article here.

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Nelson on his honorary doctorate from Thammasat University! The University’s medical school has been in operation for over 20 years and Dr. Nelson has remained active with the University since its inception. Additionally, the UCLA Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine has hosted fellows from this institution.

In the last two years, Dr. Nelson was also made an honorary member of the Thai Royal College of Orthopaedic Surgery, as the only pathologist to have received the distinction, and the Thai Royal College of Pathology.

PhD candidate Jiayun Li, along with Drs. Corey Arnold (mentor), Anthony Sisk, and Huihui Ye, recently published an article in Computers in Biology and Medicine, describing an artificial intelligence (AI) technique for diagnosing and grading prostate cancer, titled “A multi-resolution model for histopathology image classification and localization with multiple instance learning.”

The Computational Diagnostics lab, led by Dr. Arnold, has developed an AI system that automatically detects prostate cancer and can distinguish between Grade group ≥2 and Grade group 1 tumors. The algorithm analyzes tissue at multiple magnifications and does not require any microscopic-level annotations from a pathologist to train. The model obtained an average precision of 99.8% for cancer detection on an external dataset.    

This high-throughput analysis technology has the potential to add clinical benefit by enhancing diagnostic capabilities as well as easing the overall workload burden in busy reference centers by screening slides to detect potentially missed small foci of cancer, standardize grading accuracy, and ensure diagnosis of high risk malignancies.  Congratulations Jiayun Li and Drs. Arnold, Sisk, and Ye! 

Read the full article here.

Dr. Shaun Yang, Assistant Clinical Professor and Assistant Medical Director, Clinical Microbiology Laboratory, was featured in a UCLA article regarding back to school safety in LA County.

Read more here.

Congratulations to Dr. Elena Stark and Dr. Zhen Mei on their new appointments as Specialty Advisors for Career Exploration! In this role, they will lead the efforts for medical student advising for the Department of Pathology. We are appreciative of their future work and representation of our department.

Congratulations to Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein, on his new position as the Vice President & Treasurer on the 2021 Board of Trustees of the American Board of Pathology!

Read the full press release here.

Congratulations to Tiffany Tran, a student in the Molecular, Cellular & Integrative Physiology Interdepartmental Ph.D. Program and researcher, on winning an American Society of Hematology (ASH) Abstract Achievement Award! Her award is for her ongoing thesis project examining the role of the RNA binding protein, IGF2BP3, in acute leukemia. The abstract achievement award is a merit-based award that recognizes the highest scoring abstracts at the ASH Annual Meeting.  

Dr. Precious Fortes, Pathology Resident, was featured in a UCLA Health news article as a research subject volunteer for a NIH-funded UCLA-based project.

Check out the article here.

The UCLA Transfusion Medicine team packed 100 units of COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma for distribution to patients across the country. Thank you to our TM faculty (Drs. McGonigle, Mei, Ward and Ziman) and the entire team for their tremendous efforts over the past year. Their inspired and innovative work will not only heal, but save lives from coast to coast.

Congratulations to Dr. Alyssa Ziman for being featured on the UCLA Instagram page, talking about the importance of blood donations!

Check it out here.