The Department is excited to welcome Dr. Girish Melkani as associate professor in the Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology, effective October 1.
Dr. Melkani comes to UAB from San Diego State University, where he did his postdoctoral studies, followed by his faculty tenure. His research focuses on disruptions of circadian rhythms associated with cardiometabolic, muscular, and sleep disorders that are hallmarks of many genetic, metabolic, and aging diseases. His lab has been at the forefront of developing and using clinically-relevant genetic models of human systemic metabolic abnormalities, cardiometabolic disease, myopathies, neuropathies, and aging using pathophysiological, cell-molecular, genetics, and nutritional approaches. His lab research findings have been published in high-impact research journals, including Science, Nature Communications, Aging Cell, eLife, Human Molecular Genetics, and PLoS Genetics.
Graduate students in the labs of two faculty members in the Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology recently celebrated dissertation defenses, publications, and grant awards.
Jennifer Valcin, PhD, successfully defended her doctoral dissertation titled, “Circadian Clock and Lipid Metabolism Disruption in Fatty Liver Disease” on July 17, 2020, and graduated August 2020. Dr. Valcin was a student in the UAB GBS Genetics, Genomics, and Bioinformatics Theme mentored by Dr. Shannon Bailey, Professor, in the Division of Molecular and Cellular Pathology.
The Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics has selected GenomOncology's Pathology Workbench and GenomAnalytics to help scale their molecular pathology lab's test volume and analysis, according to a press release on Thursday, September 29, 2020.
The division, led by director Alexander "Craig" Mackinnon, Jr., MD, PhD, intends to expand testing within the lab, as well as reduce the turnaround time from NGS sample to report by over 80%. Dr. Mackinnon's strategy is to impact patient care by dramatically improving the analytical capabilities of the lab.
GenomOncology's Pathology Workbench will help UAB scale their test volume due to the simplified workflow for variant analysis and comprehensive support for panels. In addition, the streamlined workflow will allow pathologists to return final reports to oncologists with reduced turnaround time. UAB is also using GenomAnalytics' cohort analysis capabilities to combine genomic and molecular data into one, comprehensive view. UAB will leverage the data visualization capabilities of GenomAnalytics for treatment and outcome analysis.
"The collaboration with the GenomOncology team and the overall flexibility of GenomOncology's solutions enables integration with the workflows of the UAB lab. This integration streamlines the variant review and analysis process, improving the turnaround time from NGS sample to report," said Craig Mackinnon, MD, PhD, Director of Genomics Diagnostics and Bioinformatics at UAB.
Marisa Marques, MD, is Professor and Interim Division Director of Laboratory Medicine and co-chair of the Department of Pathology's Diversity Task Force. This group meets monthly and includes representatives from around the department, including faculty, staff, and trainees. Here, Dr. Marques shares her personal story of diversity.
Are you a graduate of an international medical school (IMG)? Are you a parent? A significant other? A resident? Embarking on an academic career? Many years ago, I also identified with those labels (and some of them, still do). I still remember vividly how it felt to be at those milestones, and I would love to share with you some heartfelt advice.
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