Ulrike Lorenz, PhD
Professor, Division of Laboratory and Genomic Medicine

Executive Director of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Program

3rd Annual P&I Faculty and Staff Awards Program
October 20, 2022
4:00 – 5:00 pm Awards Ceremony, Moore Auditorium 
5:00 – 6:00 pm Reception, FLTC Atrium

Jeffrey I. Gordon, MD, the Dr. Robert J. Glaser Distinguished University Professor and director of the Edison Family Center for Genome Sciences & Systems Biology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, will be the inaugural recipient of the David and Beatrix Hamburg Award for Advances in Biomedical Research and Clinical Medicine, a newly established honor from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). The academy created the award to recognize creative and accomplished biomedical scientists who are advancing health and the human condition around the world. 

Read the full press release. 

Melanie Yarbrough, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine and Medical Director of Microbiology at Barnes Jewish Hospital, has received the 2022 Ellis Benson Award. The award from the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) recognizes Dr. Yarbrough's work in advancing diagnostic methods for infectious diseases such as bloodstream and urinary tract infections. 

Read the full story on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

Three faculty members in the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine were recently awarded a multi-year, multi-million dollar grant to research the aging brain. The group, which comprises Jonathan Kipnis, PhD, BJC Investigator, Alan A. and Edith L. Wolff Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology; Gwen Randolph, PhD, Emil R. Unanue Distinguished Professor of Pathology and Immunology; Marco Colonna, MD, Robert Rock Belliveau Professor of Pathology and Immunology; and David Holtzman, MD, Barbara Burton and Reuben M. Morriss III Distinguished Professor of Neurology, has received $15 million over five years from NIH for their project, “Neuroimmunology of AD and CAA with focus on innate immunity and lymphatics.”

Read the full story on the Pathology & Immunology website.

Jonathan R. Brestoff, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology and Immunology, on had his paper “Intercellular Mitochondria Transfer to Macrophages Regulates White Adipose Tissue Homeostasis and Is Impaired in Obesity,” named one of the top articles in the Best of Cell Metabolism 2021. "I’m so grateful to all of our collaborators and co-authors, as this paper wouldn’t have been possible without their contributions,” said Dr. Brestoff.

View the Best of Cell Metabolism 2021 issue via CellPress online. 

Suzanne R. Thibodeaux, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, was selected as Associate Scientific Member of the BEST Collaborative. The BEST (Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion) Collaborative is an international collaborative of blood providers, industry and academic experts who undertake studies, publish guidance and recommend procedures, to improve the safety, quality and effectiveness of transfusion medicine and cellular therapies worldwide. 

Read the news item on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

John Frater, MD, Professor of Pathology & Immunology and Section Head of Flow Cytometry at Washington University School of Medicine, will become president of the International Society for Laboratory Hematology (ISLH) following the 2023 Symposium on May 11-13, 2023 in New Orleans, Louisiana. Dr. Frater is currently the president-elect of ISLH.

Washington University Genomics and Pathology Services has added constitutional whole exome sequencing to their clinical test menu. Whole exome sequencing (WES) utilizes next-generation sequencing technology to characterize variation in the coding region (exons) of the human genome. It is a powerful approach for establishing molecular diagnoses in the setting of suspected Mendelian disorders and is recommended by the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics as a first-line test for pediatric patients with congenital anomalies, developmental delay or intellectual disability. 

Members of the Genomics team recently celebrated the launch of the assay with lunch and a cake (see photo at right). 

The Corbo Lab recently had a paper published in Current Biology, “A mechanism for red coloration in vertebrates.” In the paper, researchers define the enzymatic mechanism through which vertebrates make red color by studying the photoreceptors of chickens. This mechanism plays a fundamental role in animal coloration and color vision, said Joe Corbo, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Read the full story on the Pathology & Immunology website.

Nima Mosammaparast, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine, is senior co-author on a study recently published in Cancer Discovery, "SMYD3 Impedes Small Cell Lung Cancer Sensitivity to Alkylation Damage through RNF113A Methylation–Phosphorylation Cross-talk." The study shows an experimental combination of two drugs halts the progression of small cell lung cancer, the deadliest form of lung cancer. 

Read the press release from Washington University School of Medicine.

The Brestoff Lab had a paper published in Cell Metabolism, “Dietary lipids inhibit mitochondria transfer to macrophages to divert adipocyte-derived mitochondria into the blood. “This paper shows that nutrients in our diet affect whether mitochondria are transferred to macrophages locally within fat tissue or released into the blood. As a clinical pathologist, I’m interested in whether measuring cell-free mitochondria in blood could be used as a diagnostic tool in patients,” said Jonathan Brestoff, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine.

Read more about the paper on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

We are thrilled to announce our residency program has been named among the best in the nation. According to a new ranking published by professional medical network Doximity, the Pathology & Immunology Residency Program at Washington University School of Medicine ranks number one in size, number six in research output, and number eleven in overall reputation in the U.S. 

View the Doximity rankings. 
Learn more about our residency program. 

An innovative project from the Department of Pathology & Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Jewish Hospital (BJH) won a 2022 QUEST (Quality, Excellence and Safety Team) Award, an accolade that recognizes contributions made to improve organization performance and quality of care through the use of process and outcome measures. The WashU Med and BJH team won the award for their submission, “Frozen Section Module Creation and Deployment Project.” The project focused on the development and implementation of a web-based frozen section module that could electronically transmit frozen section gross, microscopic images and diagnoses into the ORs. 

Read the full story on the Pathology & Immunology website. 

John M. Erricoa, Lucas J. Adams, Daved H. Fremont. Chapter One - Antibody-mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2 spike. Advances in Immunology, 22 August 2022, vol. 154: 1-69. Article

Patricia V. Hernandez, Brian Duffy, Karl Hock, Christopher Farnsworth, Emily Schindler, Chang Liua. HLA-B evolutionary divergence is associated with outcomes after SARS-CoV-2 infection. Human Immunology, 12 September 2022. Article

CB O'Hare, KS Mangin-Heimos, H Gu, M Edmunds, M Bebbington, CL Lee, M He, CM Ortinau. Placental Delayed Villous Maturation is Associated with Fetal Congenital Heart Disease. American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, 2022 August 16. Article

Mark A. Zaydman, Alexander S. Little, Fidel Haro, Valeryia Aksianiuk, William J. Buchser, Aaron DiAntonio, Jeffrey I. Gordon, Jeffrey Milbrandt, Arjun S. Raman. Defining hierarchical protein interaction networks from spectral analysis of bacterial proteomes. eLife, 17 August 2022. Article

Steve Persaud, MD, PhD

View grants and awards for 2022 and 2021 in a new section of the Pathology & Immunology website, "Grants and Notables."

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