l-r: Will Meehan, Researcher III, Katy Marotto, Researcher III, Victoria Ordonez, Undergraduate in Cancer Biology, Eason Hildreth, D.V.M., Ph.D. Eason Hildreth, D.V.M., Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology (MCP), is an active researcher in the UAB Department of Pathology. Dr. Hildreth joined UAB in July 2019 from the Medical College of South Carolina and has since shown his dedication to the field and the Department. In 2021, he received a two-year Early Career Investigator grant from METAvivor Research and Support for his research on breast cancer and was also named a UAB Heersink Pittman Scholar. In an effort to showcase the impactful contributions of UAB Pathology researchers, Hildreth answers some questions about his areas of research and what led him to UAB.
What is your research focus?
We are interested in genetic programs in the tumor microenvironment that drive cancer progression. To date, this has largely hinged on genetically (using genetically-modified mice) and therapeutically (using microparticle drug delivery) targeting tumor-associated macrophages independent of where the tumor is located and targeting osteoclasts in bone metastasis in breast cancer. More recently, this has expanded to an interest in cancer-associated fibroblasts and renal cancer (another bone metastatic malignancy).
Written by Hannah Buckelew
On July 1, 2022, the Department of Pathology welcomes three new faculty members to the Division of Laboratory Medicine, directed by Vishnu Reddy, M.D.
Megan Amerson-Brown, Ph.D., CIC, MLS, joins the department as Assistant Professor from the Baylor College of Medicine, where she recently completed a Medical and Public Health Microbiology fellowship.
Amerson-Brown received her Ph.D. in Human Pathophysiology and Translational Medicine in 2019 from the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences before working as an Infection Control Consultant in response to COVID-19 with Hospital Executive Interim Management and Consulting at Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York. She has served as a Graduate Research Assistant at UTMB Galveston and as adjunct faculty, infection preventionist, and medical technologist in Microbiology at MD Anderson School of Health Professions and Cancer Center.
Amr ElhamamsyAmr Elhamamsy, a cancer biology theme student in the laboratory of Rajeev Samant, Ph.D., Professor, Molecular and Cellular Pathology, is the recipient of a 2022 O’Neal NextGen Scholar predoctoral award.
Written by Christina Crowe
The Department of Pathology is excited to announce three endowment updates for our faculty:
The endowment held by Yabing Chen, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Faculty Development and Education—a professorship—has been elevated to and is fully endowed as a chair. Dr. Chen is now the Jay M. McDonald Endowed Chair in Laboratory Medicine. The department is grateful for the ongoing support of former chair Jay M. McDonald, M.D., Ph.D., and his wife, Sarah, with the generous funding of this endowment.
Shu Chen, Ph.D., Professor, Neuropathology, is named the inaugural holder of the Ona Faye-Petersen Endowed Professorship, established in 2021, supported by the department. Dr. Chen joined the department in December 2021 from Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Pathology.
Page 53 of 120