Shu Chen, Ph.D., Professor, Neuropathology, was awarded a strategic initiative grant from the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) Association, for his project, "Development of Skin Biomarker for Early Diagnosis of ALS."
Chen joined the Department of Pathology in December 2021, the latest addition to our Neuropathology Division, led by C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D.
ALS is a progressive neurodegenerative disease. This one year, $60,000 award will help advance Chen's research in diagnosing ALS.
The Division of Laboratory Medicine is pleased to announce the addition of Elizabeth Staley, M.D., Ph.D., to our faculty, effective January 27, 2022. Dr. Staley re-joins the department as an assistant professor, returning to UAB where she received both her doctorate of immunology and her doctor of medicine degrees.
Staley returns from the west coast where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center.
As a medical student, in 2014 she received the William Boyd Medal in Pathology, given on behalf of the Alabama Association of Pathologists and the faculty of the UAB Department of Pathology to the graduating medical student whose performance in Pathology throughout their medical school career, “has been most outstanding.”
Staley was a resident in clinical pathology at UAB Pathology, as well as a fellow in Hemostasis. During her fellowship she also worked as an Instructor, for the Transfusion Medicine service. She completed a second fellowship in Transfusion Medicine, at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
She is board certified in clinical pathology and blood banking/transfusion medicine, and is a member of the American Society for Clinical Pathology, AABB, and the Academy of Laboratory Physicians and Scientists. In addition, she serves as a peer reviewer for several pathology journals.
Staley has lectured for multiple courses throughout her career, on topics ranging from hematology to apheresis and transfusion. She is a well published author, and having published primary research as well as numerous reviews and book chapters.
At the end of 2021, UAB Pathology will send off Sandy Cummings, Administrative Supervisor, Division of Anatomic Pathology, as she celebrates her retirement. Sandy has worked in the department since 2008, but her history with UAB starts as far back as her birth.
Sandy was born at UAB Hospital. She started her professional career at UAB as an Office Support Specialist in the Division of Gastroenterology/Hepatology in 1995. In 2002 she transitioned to an Administrative Support Specialist role in the Department of Medicine Chair's office, where she worked until taking on an Office Administrator position in the Division of Anatomic Pathology, in 2008. She was promoted to Administrative Associate, then Administrative Supervisor for the division. In her 13 years in the department she has given tirelessly to the job and always been a friendly face to greet at the office.
She has worked very closely with several senior faculty in the division, including Gene Siegal, M.D., Ph.D., Robert M. Mowry Endowed Professor and Executive Vice Chair, who shared the following sentiments on her retirement:
"If you separated from your 'significant other' after decades together, do you really think you could summarize your journey together in a sentence or two? Of course not! I’ve enjoyed great academic success but its not ‘me' but ‘us’ - who do you think typed those hundreds of manuscripts and book chapters, who helped edit those abstracts down to the 150-word maximum, who sat with me for hours upon hours putting together lectures starting with Kodachromes and ending with Powerpoint and Zoom? Who fed me? Who bolstered my ego when I received another rejection? Who made the plane and hotel reservations and on and on--exactly!! Sandy did and she did it with kindness and dare I say love. She calls herself 'my wife at work' and indeed she was, in the best sense of the word. I mourn her loss and she’s not yet quite left - this is not something one [I] will not get over in a few days or weeks - yet at the end she earned a glorious retirement and is young enough to truly enjoy it - so on that note I wish her the very best always."
Sandy (fourth from right) surrounded by her supportive coworkers
By Christina Crowe
On December 15, 2021, the Department welcomes a new faculty member to the Division of Neuropathology directed by C. Ryan Miller, M.D., Ph.D.
Shu G. Chen, Ph.D., joins the UAB Department of Pathology as Professor, Neuropathology, from Case Western Reserve University’s Department of Pathology, where he served as professor.
Chen earned his Ph.D. in Biochemical Pharmacology from the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) in 1993. Chen went on to become a Senior Research Associate at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, for his post-graduate training in 1992 before accepting a position as an instructor and later as assistant professor in Case Western’s Department of Pathology, in 1996.
Dr. Chen is a well-established neurobiologist in the field of neurodegenerative diseases. Among his achievements, he is among the first to elucidate the structural differences in prion protein that causes distinct human prion diseases, the basis for today’s prion strain typing as a diagnostic tool in the prion field. He is also an expert on the pathogenesis of Parkinson’s disease associated with LRRK2 mutations. Chen’s current research focuses on biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease, Lewy body dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease, supported by two R01s and a U01 award on the topics, from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). He is also supported by the NIA for an R01 on computational prediction, network analysis and genetic screening in C. elegans to uncover neurodegenerative causes in Alzheimer’s disease. Chen has published more than 80 peer-reviewed papers in high-quality scientific journals, with a citation h-index of 52 by Google Scholar.
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