Vahid Azimi, MD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Laboratory & Genomic Medicine

Safder Ganaie, PhD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Laboratory & Genomic Medicine

Sunkyung (Sunny) Kim, PhD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Immunobiology

Tiantian Liu, PhD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Immunobiology

Hussein Sultan, PhD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Immunobiology

Chanchal Sur Chowdhury, PhD
Instructor, Pathology & Immunology
Division of Immunobiology

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and Director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences and Systems Biology, has won the 2023 Princess of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research. The Asturias awards, among the most prestigious honors in the Spanish-speaking world, are designed to recognize exceptional scientific, technical, cultural, social and humanitarian work performed at an international level.

Read more in a press release from Washington University School of Medicine. 

Sarah Ackerman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, has received a 2023 Klingenstein-Simons Fellowship Award in Neuroscience. She is one of 13 new fellows – all early-career scientists in the U.S. – who will receive three-year $300,000 grants to pursue high-risk, cutting-edge research. 

Read more in a press release from Washington University School of Medicine. 

Gautam Dantas, PhD, the Conan Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Immunology, and a team from Washington University School of Medicine published findings in Science Translational Medicine that indicate dangerous bacterial bloodstream infections in preemies may originate from the infants’ gut microbiomes. Such infections are extremely concerning, as about half of infants who are extremely preterm or have very low birth weights experience at least one episode of the life-threatening infection after 72 hours of life.

Read more in a press release from Washington University School of Medicine. 

Four faculty in the Department of Pathology and Immunology have received Dean’s Impact Awards in 2023, including:

Neil W. Anderson, MD, D(ABMM), Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology; Co-Section Head, Microbiology; Director, Residency Program

Carey-Ann D. Burnham, PhD, D(ABMM), FIDSA, F(AAM), Professor of Pathology & Immunology, Molecular Microbiology, Pediatrics, and Medicine

Ali Ellebedy, PhD, Associate Professor, Pathology & Immunology

Bijal Parikh, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Pathology & Immunology; Director, BJH Molecular Diagnostics Lab; Director, Molecular Genetic Pathology Fellowship

Read more on the School of Medicine’s Office of Faculty Promotions & Career Development website.

Martina Molgora, PhD, Instructor of Pathology & Immunology and a member of the Colonna Lab, and Siyan Cao, MD, PhD, a recent postdoctoral research associate in the Colonna Lab and a current Instructor in Medicine, have received funding from the American Gastroenterological Association (AGA) through the organization’s annual AGA Research Foundation Awards Program. The program serves as a career catalyst for the most promising researchers in gastroenterology and hepatology.

Read more on the Department of Pathology & Immunology website. 

Ian S. Hagemann, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Director of the Gynecologic and Breast Pathology Fellowship, and Hansini Laharwani, MD, a former Gynecologic and Breast Pathology Fellow in the Department of Pathology & Immunology, were recently elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society (AOA). 

Read more about Dr. Hagemann and Dr. Lahwarni's AOA recognition on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

Lulu Sun, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology & Immunology, was recently named a 40 Under 40 honoree by the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP). ASCP’s program “recognizes members under the age of 40 for their achievements and leadership qualities that are making an impact on pathology and laboratory medicine,” the organization said on its website. 

Read the full story on the Department of Pathology & Immunology website. 

A recent study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine including Gautam Dantas, PhD, the Conan Professor of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine and Professor of Pathology and Immunology, shows that people in the earliest stage of Alzheimer’s disease harbor an assortment of bacteria in their intestines that differs from the gut bacteria of healthy people. The findings, published June 14, 2023, in Science Translational Medicine, open up the possibility of analyzing the gut bacterial community to identify people at higher risk of developing dementia, and of designing microbiome-altering preventive treatments to stave off cognitive decline.

Read the full story from Washington University School of Medicine. 

Scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis including Joseph Gaut, MD, PhD, the Ladenson Professor of Pathology and Immunology, are among the leaders of a multi-institution research team that has built an atlas focused on the kidney’s myriad cells. The aim of the kidney tissue atlas is to further the understanding of kidney injury and disease. 

Read more in a press release from the School of Medicine. 

Three trainees in the Department of Pathology and Immunology recently won the Paul E. Strandjord Young Investigator Award for research projects they presented at the 2023 Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) Conference in Charlottesville, Virginia: Hannah Brown, PhD, a Clinical Chemistry fellow; Robert Frick, MD, a Clinical Pathology resident; and Nicholas Spies, MD, chief resident in Clinical Pathology.

Read more on the Pathology & Immunology website.

Samantha Krysa, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in the Brestoff Lab in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, was named a 2023 W.M. Keck Postdoctoral Fellow. The fellowship recognizes and supports outstanding postdoctoral scientists in their first two years of training in biomedical sciences and molecular medicine by offering a competitive stipend as well as funds for research supplies.

Read more on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

Rocky Giwa, a graduate student in the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences and member of the Brestoff Lab in the Department of Pathology and Immunology, has received the Roy & Diana Vagelos International Student Fellowship. The ISF fellowship, which is awarded through the Division of Biology and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), provides Rocky with funding for her PhD training at the university.

Read more on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

Department of Pathology & Immunology
Washington University School of Medicine
pathology.wustl.edu