One of the most heartbreaking things a parent can hear is “Your child has an aggressive, malignant brain tumor.” When that is followed up with the physician saying there is no effective cure, parents are left devastated. This is what motivates Dr. Sriram Venneti and his research laboratory to dedicate their all to finding a cure. Venneti focuses on Group 3 medulloblastomas, which are very aggressive pediatric brain tumors with no known cure.

When one hears “Artificial Intelligence” – what comes to mind? For some, it may be Terminator-style beings or rogue artificial life forms. In Pathology, however, AI is bringing enhanced patient care and improved satisfaction to pathologists, patients, and clinicians alike. In a recent article in CAP Today, Michigan Medicine’s Department of Pathology was highlighted for its advanced digital pathology workflows. Drs. Ul Balis and Mustafa Yousif described the process for initiating digital pathology into our standard of care, which required significant advanced facilities planning, research, development, and investments.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

Congratulations to Koral Campbell, Molecular and Cellular Pathology graduate student on being awarded the Rogel Cancer Center’s TrEC Scholarships Graduate Student Scholarship 2024. Koral’s winning application on The Role of High Fat Diet in Clonal Hematopoiesis and Leukemogenesis earned her a $25,000 award to offset her tuition and fees for 2024. In addition, as a Rogel trainee, she will have priority access to training opportunities and additional scholarships.

In a manuscript published this week in JAMA Oncology, senior author Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan and members of the EDRN-PCA3 Study Group reported on their development and validation of a new 18-gene urine-based test for diagnosis of high-grade prostate cancer, MPS2. This test was initially developed in the Department of Pathology. 

Dr. Gabriel Nunez 's Lab Makes Breakthrough Discovery in Colitis

Crohn’s disease (CD), one of the major forms of Inflammatory Bowel Disease, is a chronic relapsing intestinal disorder that affects millions of people globally. The cause of CD is unknown, but it is thought to result from a dysregulated immune response against environmental factors, including intestinal microbes, in genetically susceptible hosts.

The critical role that the intestinal microorganisms, collectively known as the gut microbiota, plays in the pathogenesis of CD has been investigated over the past two decades. Given the importance of the gut microbiota in triggering CD, the development of therapeutic approaches that target disease-causing intestinal microbes may provide a unique approach to the treatment of this disease [...]

Dr. Julianne Szczepanski shares her story of parenting while working in healthcare.

A study from clinicians and researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, U-M Department of Pathology and the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology reveals findings from over 800 clinical assays performed for kidney patients with MiTF family gene mutations.

After several decades of hard work by many scientists at the University of Michigan Medical School and elsewhere, an antibody (anti-C5a) has just been approved by the US FDA for treatment of humans who are septic and have developed lung infections with COVID-19, resulting in severe pulmonary dysfunction requiring external lung support. The antibody, anti-C5a, was originally developed in the Dr. Peter Ward laboratory in the early 2000s. The mAb was shown to dramatically reduce lung infections in polymicrobial sepsis in mice. 

A recently published research study led by Drs. Sem Phan and Tianju Liu from the Department of Pathology reported new findings that could help scientists predict disease progression and suggest a new immunotherapy target for the treatment of IPF and other fibrotic lung diseases.

These findings uncovered a new role for the immune checkpoint marker (B7-H3) in lung fibrosis that can potentially serve as a novel target for immunotherapy to slow down or abort the progression of lung fibrosis in patients with IPF and other chronic lung fibrotic diseases. In addition, sB7H3 levels in the plasma could serve as a potential marker to predict how quickly the disease progresses in patients and assess responsiveness to therapy, allowing for more informed treatment decisions.

Researchers from the Department of Pathology recently published a fascinating study into clinician’s perspectives on integrating pathologists into the patient’s care team in the form of pathology explanation clinics (PECs) [1]. Clinicians were asked, “How interested would you be in having your patient meet with a pathologist to discuss their pathology report and see their tissue under the microscope?”

The laboratory of Dr. Chang Kim, recently published a high-impact study that elucidates the bone marrow niche and mechanisms by which innate lymphoid cells differentiate between those which remain in the bone marrow and those which emigrate to the rest of the body.  Read more[...]

As the SARS-CoV-2 virus continues to mutate over time and new booster vaccines become available, the question arises, are the multivalent boosters more effective at improving immune response than the monovalent vaccines with which we began? This question was addressed by a multi-site group from Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons (New York) and from the University of Michigan Medical School Department of Pathology. Drs. Riccardo Valdez, Carmen Gherasim, and Aubree Gordon represented the Immunity Associated with SARS-CoV-2 (IASO) research team at U-M[...]

One of the most fascinating aspects of a career in cancer research is that one never knows when or where the next great discovery will occur. This was true of a recent breakthrough discovery made by the Dr. Russell Ryan laboratory at the University of Michigan Medical School. They were shocked to find that active regulatory elements in B-ALL contained not only typical protein binding sequences but also simple repeats of the sequence “GGAA”, usually considered a form of “junk DNA” with no regulatory function [...]

Members of the University of Michigan Department of Pathology and Michigan Center for Translational Pathology, in collaboration with the Clinical Proteomic Tumor Analysis Consortium, recently published a large study on clear cell renal cell carcinomas (ccRCCs), which represent about 75% of the RCC cases and account for the most RCC-associated deaths. This study set out to create a comprehensive profile of ccRCC, combining histologic and molecular profiles. By analyzing both the microscopic cell structures and the genetic makeup of the cells, these researchers discovered significant intratumoral heterogeneity in 90% of ccRCCs. This indicates that ccRCCs originate from multiple tumor cell lines, called tumor subclones, that may become metastatic and could independently influence response to therapies. Through this study, the team was able to molecularly stratify aggressive histopathic subtypes, which may lead to more effective treatment strategies for patients and improved survival.

For many of us, the idea of having blood drawn can be an unnerving thought. The use of needles and the sight of blood itself is not something we look forward to. However, Michigan Medicine has made several measures over the years to help the experience of our patients when needing to draw blood; especially young children [...]

A glimpse into Karen Barron's role as the Allied Health Education Program manager and helping to create opportunities for young laboratory professionals.

The field of Pathology is changing quickly as technology advances, with deep learning and artificial intelligence expanding into diagnostic arenas.

The Celina Kleer lab at the University of Michigan Department of Pathology and Rogel Cancer Center has found a new mechanism that fuels metastasis in triple negative breast cancers. In their new study they show that EZH2, a master regulator of cell type identity, known to function through methylation of histones, has a new, unexpected function in aggressive breast cancers [...]

Patients with relapsed multiple myeloma are resistant to commonly used treatments. Researchers are one step closer to understanding the genetic reason why.

A landmark study into quantitative image analysis in ER, PgR, and HER2 in invasive breast carcinoma was recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Pathology. Dr. Mustafa Yousif, Assistant Professor of Breast Pathology and Informatics, and colleagues conducted a retrospective study of 1,367 invasive breast carcinomas of all histopathology subtypes, for which ER, PgR, and HER2 were analyzed by manual scoring [...]

The role of artificial intelligence (AI) in healthcare continues to expand. In a recent issue of BMC Cancer, Dr. Vipulkumar Dadhania (first author) and colleagues published a result of their study Leveraging artificial intelligence to predict ERG gene fusion status in prostate cancer. The expert team from the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology developed a deep-learning-based model to predict ERG genomic rearrangements in prostatic adenocarcinomas using only H&E-stained digital slides [...]

Drs. Liron Pantanowitz, Jeffrey Myers, Priya Kunju, as well as David and Elle Chapel were featured in the April 2022 edition of CAP Today Magazine, a medical science publication by the College of American Pathologists. The article focuses on the development of the AP hospitalist role at Michigan Medicine [...]

Leadership at all levels engaged in the fight against COVID; a behind-the-scenes look.

Research from INHERET was just published in the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (JNCCN). Learn more about this study, which analyzes the implementation of InheRET's online tool that provides information about family history as it relates to cancer risks [...]

 A multi-institutional study led by Drs. Alex Taylor, Noah Brown and Rohit Mehra from the Department of Pathology was just published in European Urology's Open Science. Learn more about the resarch, which focuses on how TERT promoter mutations were characterized in urinary tract lesions, which may be considered as precursors to neoplasia at this site [...]

Throughout the ongoing pandemic, many patients who die from COVID-19 pneumonia are found at autopsy to have a pattern of fibrosis in their lungs that resemble nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP).  However, members of the Anatomic Pathology Division of Pathology at Michigan Medicine were curious about the lungs of those who survive COVID-19 pneumonia [...]

A study related to the maternal gut microbiome and how it regulates immunity to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections in offspring was recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Clinical experts from the Department of Pathology including Drs. Wendy Fonseca, Nicholas Lukacs, and Catherine Ptaschinski were responsible for carrying out this study [...]

Research pertaining to Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC) and cutaneous neuroendocrine carcinomas was just published in the latest edition of Modern Pathology. Led by the team of Drs. Paul Harms, May Chan, Aaron Udager, Rajiv Patel, and more [...]

Research from experts in the Department of Pathology was published in Europe PMC's Histopathology. The team comprised of Drs. Jiaqi Shi, Laura Lamps and Erika Hissong examined the impact of adenomatoid tumors within the gastrointestinal tract [...]

Dr. Xiao-Ming (Mindy) Wang and colleagues from the Michigan Center for Translational Pathology and Department of Pathology published a groundbreaking finding from an inter-institutional study regarding TRIM63 in Modern Pathology  [...]

The Department of Pathology's 2020 Annual Report is now available online. In the report, you will read about the department’s tripartite mission of research, education, and patient care, and learn about the goals of the department’s Strategic Council [...]

Research from the Department of Pathology was just published in the Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Learn more about this publication, which highlights GI samples from COVID-19 patients, led by Dr. Maria Westerhoff [...]

A research effort by Drs. Jolanta Grembecka and Tomasz Cierpicki was just published in Nature Communications. Learn more about the protein made by the ASH1L gene, which plays a key role in the development of acute leukemia, along with other diseases [...]

Research from the Department's Lombard Lab was just published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation. The study, which focuses on how the deacylase SIRT5 compound supports melanoma viability by influencing chromatin dynamics, was led by Dr. Lombard [...]

Learn more about pathologists' attitudes toward patient interactions in this new publication, led by Dr. Cathryn Lapedis.

The department has navigated an unprecedented workload over the past year and continues to increase. Hear from experts Christine Kizer, Dr. Michael Bachman, Jennifer Bergendahl, and more, as they discuss how efforts have helped Michigan Medicine stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic [...]

A new publication from the Department of Pathology, led by Dr. Kathleen Cho, was just published in the American Association for Cancer Research's flagship journal. highlights how altering the microbiome within a mouse model of oviductal high-grade serious carcinoma can inhibit tumorigeneis [...]

MiTF renal cell carcinoma can masquerade as other subtypes and may not respond as well to front-line therapies.

A new study, led by U-M graduate in molecular and cellular pathology Dr. Andi Cani, was just published in European Urology Oncology. The publication focuses on the development of a whole-urine, multiplexed, next-generation RNA-sequencing assay that is used for the early detection of aggressive forms of prostate cancer [...]

Research by Drs. Ann Laszczyk and the Department of Pathology's Dr. Gregory Dressler was just published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. The study focuses on PAX2 proteins and their effects on kidney function and development.

A series of sophisticated processes are required in the development of innate lymphoid cells (ILC) for them to reach maturity. The Kim laboratory discovered that basic leucine zipper ATF-like transcription factor (Batf) regulates the production of ILC progenitors in the bone marrow as well as the maintenance of ILCs in the periphery. These cells are strategically distributed in peripheral tissues to provide important innate immunity to fight pathogens such as pathogenic viruses and bacteria.

A collaboration between the Department of Pathology and the Department of Dermatology examined biomarkers of outcomes in 346 cases of Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), an aggressive type of skin cancer. The study was published in the recent edition of Clinical Cancer Research [...]

A new publication, generated by Department of Pathology faculty members Drs. Aaron Udager and Scott Tomlins was successfully published in European Urology. The research highlights a longitudinal cohort study centered around the serial molecular profiling of low-grade prostate cancer in order to better assess tumor upgrading [...]

Clinical trials underway are testing whether drugs that target the androgen receptor – successful in controlling prostate cancer – could also work against the coronavirus. wo proteins, ACE2 and TMPRSS2, help the coronavirus gain entry and replicate within cells. TMPRSS2 is well-known to Arul Chinnaiyan, MD, PhD. His lab discovered that TMPRSS2 fuses with the ETS gene to drive more than half of all prostate cancers [...]

A new study led by Drs. Jolanta Grembecka and Tomasz Cierpicki of the Department of Pathology was just published in Blood's American Society of Hematology. The research focuses on combinatorial treatment with menin and FLT3 and how inhibitors induce complete remission in acute myeloid leukemia (AML) with activating FLT3 mutations [...]

New research by the Department of Pathology was recently published in Modern Pathology. The study, led by Drs. Aaron Udager, Noah Brown, Bryan Betz, Jonathan McHugh and Scott Tomlins, focuses on how TP53 mutations and CDKN2A mutations and deletions are highly recurrent molecular alterations within malignant progression of sinonasal papilomas [...]

Research by the Department of Pathology's Drs. Richard Miller and Joseph Endicott was just published in the Journal of Cell Biology. The study focuses on the inhibition of class I PI3K and how it enhances chaperone-mediated autophagy (CMA) [...]

New research from the Department of Pathology and Dr. Alexandra Hristov was just published in the Journal of Cutaneous Pathology. The study focuses on the kappa and lambda immunohistochemistry in situ hybridization of atypical cutaneous lymphoid infiltrates. 

In a recently published Nature Reviews-Nephrology review article, “Digital pathology and computational image analysis in nephropathology,” Dr. Ulysses G. J. Balis discussed how the emergence of digital pathology — an image-based environment for the acquisition, management, and interpretation of pathology information supported by computational techniques for data extraction and analysis — is changing the pathology ecosystem [...]

Research from Dr. Analisa Difeo was just published in Nature Communications. The study focuses on miR-181a and how it initiates and perpetuates oncogenic transformation through the regulation of innate immune signaling [...]

The research was just published in Histopathology and features prominent contributions from our faculty.

The Department of Pathology 2019 Annual Report is now available online. Our department continues to show outstanding performance and growth and the past year was another example of why our department is one of the best in the world.

In the report, you will read about [...]

The study sheds light on alternative methods used for measuring size and depth of vulvar squamous cell carcinoma.

A new study from the Andrew Lieberman Laboratory’s Samir Nath, et al, has discovered that MEF2 impairment underlies skeletal muscle atrophy in polyglutamine disease.

Kennedy’s Disease, also known as Spinal and Bulbar Muscular Atrophy (SBMA), is a disease caused by an inherited gene mutation that results in muscle and brain cell dysfunction. Patients progressively lose muscle mass until they are unable to walk without assistance. Ultimately [...]

Researchers have uncovered the gene signature for ChRCC.

The study details research surrounding Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) among infants.

Resolvin E1 (RvE1), a lipid derived from Omega-3 fatty acids, is a pro-repair molecule that promotes healing of intestinal wounds according to a recent study published in PNAS as a collaborative project between The Department of Pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School and [...]

Mark Schultz, PhD, and Andrew Lieberman MD, PhD, have published “Synthetic high-density lipoprotein nanoparticles for the treatment of Niemann–Pick diseases” in BMC Medicine. [...]

Department faculty outreach to high school students to educate about careers in medicine and research.

Bryan Betz, PhD, was inspired by his late wife, Sharon, to pursue a career in clinical diagnostics.

A look at the artists behind the artwork hung in the newly renovated facility.

A study by Drs. Emily McMullen, Paul Harms, Lori Lowe, Doug Fullen, and May Chan is published in the September issue of the American Journal of Surgical Pathology (AJSP). Calciphylaxis is a dermatologic emergency where an accurate and timely diagnosis is crucial but [...]

In collaboration with Drs. Luke Nayak and Arjun Sondhi, Dr. Maria Westerhoff published a report in Gastroenterology titled, "A Rare Complication of a Rare Disease" documents a case of erythropoietic protoporphyria, a rare condition that can affect the liver [...]

The Fifth Edition of Histology for Pathologists has just been published by Wolters Kluwer and Maria Westerhoff, MD, and Joel Greenson, MD, co-wrote the chapter on colon histology. The newest edition of this award-winning book is a comprehensive collection of normal histology written by anatomic pathologists for anatomic pathologists. The book is designed to [...]

Unique structure of circRNA makes it an ideal candidate for biomarkers – and it can be detected in blood or urine.

A new U-M initiative aims to improve the patient experience by forging connections between pathologists and the people they serve.

Dr. Sameer Khatri along with the Department of Pathology's Drs. Min Wang, Paul Harms, Douglas Fullen, Aleodor Andea, and May Chan, in collaboration with other U-M [...]

Clinical FISH Assays for TFE3 and TFEB Help Characterize Renal Cell Carcinoma.