Congratulations are to be extended to Bryan Peterson, a student in the University of Michigan's Medical Scientist Training Program, for succesfully defending his thesis, "The role of IL-25 in Innate cytokine production and Pulmonary immunopathology".  After having been successfully awarded his Ph.D., Bryan will return to the medical school to complete his last two years of clinical rotations.

A team of researchers led by Nick Lukacs, Ph.D, Professor and Bryan Peterson, a student in the University of Michigan's Medical Scientist Training Program, have identified a new type of cell in treatment-resistant asthma.  This work, recently highlighted by the Medical School at http://www.uofmhealth.org/news/treament-resistant-asthma-0507, and published in Nature Medicine, was also featured in Crane's Business News.

Congratulations are to be extended to David O. Ferguson, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor who was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation at the annual ASCP/AAP meeting in Chicago, April 27-29, 2012.

Medicine at Michigan's Inside Scoop Department published Circle Trumps Square which featured the "game-changing" software "Spatially Invariant Vector Quantization," designed by Drs. Ulysses Balis and Jason Hipp and their collaborators. The SIVQ software's ability to identify specific patterns has a wide range of uses and is meant to augment human capabilities.

Ulysses G.J. Balis, MD, Director of the Division of Informatics, was extensively quoted in the April edition of CAP Today, for an article entitled: "Partnering to waltz AP IT into next generation."

Congratulations are to be extended for awards received from the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS)-Michigan. Kristina Martin, Clinical Pathology Operations Coordinator for receiving the 2012 ASCLS-Michigan Pam Agren Inspirational and Key to the Future awards. Her contributions as co-chair for the 2012 ASCLS-Michigan Annual Meeting, and Membership Committee involvement were recognized.  Kristina was also elected, along with Melanie Herbert as ASCLS-Michigan District Representatives for the 2012-2013 term.  Andrea Hickey, Clinical Laboratory Scientist II, Blood Bank and Transfusion Service, received the Mentor of the Year award.  She was recognized for mentoring society members as the 2011 President and as annual meeting chair.

Dr. Lauren Smith was an invited lecturer at the 32nd Annual Graduate Student Symposium in Pharmacological Sciences and Biorelated Chemistry held on Friday, 6 April 2012. Her talk was entitled "Putting the 'me' in medicine: The ethics of personalized health care."

Megan S. Lim, M.D., Ph.D., Professor and Director of Hematopathology, has been asked to serve as a member of the Education Committee for the USCAP for the period 2012-2015.

On March 15, 2012, Dr. Jeffrey L. Myers, MD, was inducted as one of thirty-one inaugural members into the UMHS League of Clinical Excellence, recognizing individual clinicians who are among the best in the world at saving lives and making lives better.

Stand Up To Cancer and the Prostate Cancer Foundation announce new "dream team" co-directed by Arul M. Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD.  This translational cancer research grant will provide $10 million in funding over 3 years to support a seven-center project, including both clinical and research endeavors addressing therapeutic interventions for advanced prostate cancer.