October 2012

CRITICAL VALUES -

Pathology Entrepreneurs 1

Susan Allen, MD, MPH 1

FACULTY MATTERS -

Erin Meyer, DO, MPH 2

Promotions in 2012 3

CASE REPORTS -

Teaching Awards 2

Charles Parkos, MD, PhD 2

New Clinical Lab - ECTRL 2

PHOTOS -

Residents/Fellows 2012-2013 4

IN THIS ISSUE

CALENDAR EVENTS

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State Invests in Pathology Entrepreneurs (See Comment)

Oct 13th, Warm-up—8:10am

Winship 5K Race

Oct 13th, 5pm

Recital—Piano, Soprano:

Guy Benian, Laura Jane Miller

Oct 16th, 12pm

Faculty Candidate

Vânia Nosé, MD

Oct 18th, 12pm

Faculty Candidate

Carla Ellis, MD

Oct 25th, 12pm

Faculty Candidate

Emily Reisenbichler, MD

Nov 6th, 12pm

Faculty Candidate

Ping Tang, MD, PhD

Nov 19th, 12pm

Pathology Faculty Grand Rounds

Jonathan Epstein, MD

Nov 22nd—23rd

Thanksgiving Holiday (Univ)

Left to Right: Periasamy Selvaraj; PhD, Daniel Kalman, PhD; Keqiang Ye, PhD; J. David Lambeth, MD, PhD; John D. Roback, MD, PhD

Comment: Transferring discoveries from the lab to the marketplace is a vital part of Emory’s mandate and its mission.

Kevin Lei, of Emory’s Office of Technology Transfer, reports that Pathology now has more faculty funded by VentureLab than

any other department in the University.

The work of four Pathology researchers has attracted seed-money

investments this year from the Georgia Research Alliance (GRA)

through its VentureLab program, an innovative state initiative that

helps Georgia’s academic scientists commercialize their discoveries.

Launched in 2002, VentureLab supports faculty with the most

promising new inventions and technologies, and provides them with

access to seasoned managers, advisors, and investors, as well as early

-phase grants to develop prototypes and explore commercial

feasibility. It also offers loans of up to $250,000 to start-up

companies that use licensed university technology. The program

reports having so far directed over $20 million of state funds into

Georgia universities and has helped launch more than 110 active

companies.

This year, with VentureLab support, Professors David Lambeth, M.D.,

Ph.D., and Periasamy Selvaraj, Ph.D., are advancing their

inventions of a new class of anti-inflammatory agents and personalized

therapeutic anti-cancer vaccines, respectively, while Assistant

Professor Brant Herrin, Ph.D., and Professor Max Cooper, M.D., use

lamprey antibodies to search for occult tumor antigens. In recent

years, the program also supported work by Associate Professors John

Roback, M.D., Ph.D., and Daniel Kalman, Ph.D., on automated

blood-typing instrumentation and new antiviral therapies, respectively,

and by Professor Keqiang Ye, Ph.D., on drugs against neurological

and psychiatric disorders. Altogether, since 2008, VentureLab has

invested more than $890,000 in these researchers and affiliated start-

up companies to develop their groundbreaking discoveries.

A Quarter Century on the Front Lines of African AIDS Research

Susan Allen MD MPH (right) with

Rwandan First Lady Jeannette Kagame

At a June 15 ceremony in Rwanda’s capital Kigali, Professor Susan Allen,

M.D., M.P.H., marked the 25th anniversary of the program she founded to

understand and prevent HIV transmission in Africa. Joined by Rwanda’s

First Lady and by scores of colleagues and other dignitaries, Dr Allen

celebrated a project that began from nothing and has since grown to

encompass up to 400 researchers, students, and healthcare workers on two

continents, built clinics and diagnostic laboratories in two African nations,

and touched the lives of more than 150,000 couples. A graduate of Duke

Medical School, with a degree in Tropical Medicine from Liverpool, and just

out of residency in Anatomic Pathology at the University of California in San

Francisco, Dr Allen was first drawn to Rwanda in 1985 as the HIV epidemic

there came to light, long before antiviral drugs were available to treat

it. Horrified to discover that nearly 30% of reproductive-age Rwandan

women were infected at that time, she set out to find practical, low-cost

ways of preventing spread of the virus, particularly among urban

heterosexual couples. Those who find today’s research climate challenging

may reflect that, for nearly a decade, the Rwandan government prevented

her from publishing for fear of harming tourism, and that half her staff and

patients were murdered during the 1994 genocide there. She is now

perhaps best known for developing a widely-used method of couples-based

counseling and HIV testing which her research has shown can be highly

effective at combating transmission, even in resource-poor settings. Now

active in both Rwanda and Zambia, Dr Allen’s research and patient-care

efforts over the past 25 years have garnered support from the NIH, CDC,

Gates Foundation, the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative, and

international public health agencies, and have served as the foundation for

numerous clinical, behavioral, or basic research studies with colleagues at

Emory and beyond.

Congratulations to four Pathology faculty who were honored recently by their students and trainees. The 2012 class of Emory’s Medical Technologist Training Program named Assistant Professor David Jaye, M.D., as the year’s Outstanding Faculty Instructor at their graduation ceremony in July, making him the first faculty member ever to be honored in this way. Assistant Professor Kyle Bradley, M.D., and Associate Professor Mark Edgar, M.D., carried home the 2012 Golden Apple awards for outstanding residency teaching in Clinical and Anatomic Pathology, respectively. And Professor Whit Sewell, M.D., was named the best second-year teacher and also an honorary class member by the 2012 graduating medical students. No surprise there: Dr Sewell has garnered at least one of those laurels from 20 of the past 23 graduating classes.

October 2012

CASE REPORTS -

A new clinical lab that opened its doors on September 26

offers advanced diagnostic tests for patients and a new style

of partnership between Pathology and the hospitals. The

Emory Clinical and Translational Research Laboratory (ECTRL)

is the brainchild of Assistant Professor Ross Molinaro, Ph.D.,

and Professor Jim Ritchie, Ph.D., building on their expertise in

clinical mass spectrometry. ECTRL starts out by serving as

Emory's reference lab for assaying free and total serum

testosterone, and it aims to roll out other tests in the near

future. ECTRL's goal is to provide those tests in-house at

lower cost and with faster turnaround time than outside

commercial labs, while giving patients better access to novel

or highly specialized tests developed in our Department.

Left to Right: Ross Molinaro, PhD, Jim Ritchie, PhD

NEW FACULTY — Erin K. Meyer, DO, MPH

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Our Department’s

world-class team in

transfusion

medicine caught

another rising star

in August with the

recruitment of Erin

Meyer, D.O.,

M.P.H., as a new

Assistant Professor

in our Clinical

Pathology Division.

Coming to Emory

straight out of

Harvard’s joint

fellowship in

Transfusion

Medicine, Dr Meyer

joins the faculty of

our Center for

Transfusion and

Cellular Therapies,

and will practice her

clinical subspecialty mainly in the pediatric setting in her new

role as Assistant Medical Director of the Blood Bank at

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. She earned her doctorate at

the University of New England and then completed dual

residencies in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and in

Preventive Medicine while simultaneously earning her

Master’s in Public Health, all at Dartmouth, before moving to

Harvard last year. Her authorship credits already include six

publications and a book chapter that span a range of topics in

transfusion and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation.

Building upon her advanced training in public health and

population-based studies, Dr Meyer aims to explore

opportunities in clinical effectiveness and patient-centered

outcomes research focusing on the wise use of blood

products, which are infused into more than 5 million patients

annually nationwide and cost Emory Healthcare alone more

than $15 million each year. We are delighted to welcome Dr

Meyer onto our faculty and look forward to working with her

in the years ahead.

Erin K. Meyer, DO, MPH

Professor Chuck Parkos, M.D., Ph.D., has

been elected to the President's Advisory

Committee at Emory, a council of senior

faculty who provide advice on all tenure

actions and other University matters. His

three-year term began on September 1.

Dr Parkos is also Vice Chair for

Experimental Pathology and Director of the

Medical Scientist Training Program.

L/R: Mark Edgar, MD, Kyle Bradley, MD, Whit Sewell, MD, David Jaye, MD

CASE REPORTS -

October 2012

Congratulations to the six

Pathology Department members who were promoted into the senior

faculty ranks on September 1 of

this year. Drs Marina Mosunjac, M.D., Adeboye Osunkoya, M.D.,

and Michelle Reid, M.D., M.S.,

each earned promotions to

Associate Professor, and Drs Jeannette Guarner, M.D., Momin

Siddiqui, M.D., FIAC, and Ifor

Williams, M.D., Ph.D., are now full Professors.

To the right is the complete list of Pathology faculty appointed or

promoted to Associate Professor

(Assoc) or full Professor (Prof) in each of the previous nine

years. The academic standards for

promotion at Emory are high, so

we proudly celebrate all of our faculty who meet and exceed

them.

INTRADEPARTMENTAL CONSULTATION: Promotions

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Back Row: Marina Mosunjac, MD; Ifor Williams, MD, PhD; Adeboye Osunkoya, MD Front Row: Momin Siddiqui, MD, FIAC; Jeannette Guarner, MD; Michelle Reid, MD, MS

Promotions by Academic Year -

2003

Mahul Amin Prof

Randy Hanzlick Prof

Melinda Lewis Assoc

Andrew Neish Assoc

Asma Nusrat Assoc

Chuck Parkos Prof 2004

Tony Gal Prof

Susan Muller Assoc

Bali Pulendran Assoc

Talaat Tadros Assoc

Francois Villinger Assoc 2005

Randy Hennigar Assoc

Jennifer Pullium Assoc

Bali Pulendran Prof

John Roback Assoc

2006

Angela Caliendo Prof

Andrew Gewirtz Assoc

Charlie Hao Assoc

Michael Huerkamp Prof

Sho Ono Assoc

Ifor Williams Assoc 2007

Guy Benian Prof

Dan Brat Prof

Asma Nusrat Prof

Momin Siddiqui Assoc

Keqiang Ye Assoc

Andy Young Assoc 2008

Cassandra Josephson Assoc

Shiyong Li Assoc

Sanjay Logani Assoc

Aron Lukacher Prof

Andrew Neish Prof

Todd Preuss Assoc Jim Ritchie Prof

2009

Cynthia Derdeyn Assoc

Dan Kalman Assoc

Deborah Mook Assoc

Susan Muller Prof

Beth Shaz Assoc

Wayne Wang Assoc

Jim Zimring Assoc 2010

Corinne Fantz Assoc

Carlos Moreno Assoc

Oscar Perng Assoc

Periasamy Selvaraj Prof

Keqiang Ye Prof 2011

George Birdsong Prof

Charlie Hill Assoc

Karen Mann Prof

Debra Saxe Assoc

Bahig Shehata Prof

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