Three new faculty recently joined the Division of Laboratory Medicine, directed by X. Long Zheng, M.D., Ph.D., the Robert B. Adams Professor of Pathology.
Sixto M. Leal Jr. , M.D., Ph.D., completed his residency training in clinical pathology at the University of North Carolina, and a medical microbiology fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. Leal joins the Division as an Assistant professor, Assistant Director of Clinical Microbiology, and Associate Director of the UAB Mycoplasma Diagnostic Reference laboratory. He is board certified in clinical pathology and medical microbiology with a special interest in mycology, parasitology, mycoplasmology, and histopathologic identification of microorganisms. Leal serves on the CAP Clinical Pathology Education Committee and harbors a significant interest in medical education. He has a basic and translational research background in mycology, immunology, and clinical microbiology and will pursue ongoing research projects focused on the development of novel molecular diagnostic tests for infectious agents and the biology of microbial pathogenesis.
Bryan Guillory, M.D., completed his residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Texas A&M, and a fellowship in Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine at Yale University. Guillory is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology. He joins the Division as an assistant professor focusing on service in blood banking, apheresis and coagulation. Guillory looks forward to continuing his research in clinical informatics, test utilization, clinical decision support systems, treatment optimization, and artificial intelligence.
Prabhakara Nagareddy, Ph.D., is a principal investigator currently holding an R00- and R01-grant from the National Institutes of Health. Broadly, his research focuses on understanding how the so-called “cardiovascular risk factors” actually contribute to cardiovascular disease. Specifically, he has studied the roles of diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis and other risk factors on atherosclerosis and ischemic heart disease, and published several papers in high-impact journals. Nagareddy is mentoring several postdoctoral trainees, and has received many national and international awards for his research accomplishments. He is an ad hoc reviewer for the Atherosclerosis and Inflammation of the Cardiovascular System (AICS) study section at NIH, US-Israel BNF, UK Diabetes, and many peer-reviewed journals. He has presented numerous invited talks and lectures.
“The Division of Laboratory Medicine has gained three outstanding colleagues in Drs. Leal, Guillory and Nagareddy,” Zheng says. “Their wide-ranging clinical and research interests represent the direction in which the division is heading, with faculty specializing in a diverse range of disciplines within the field.”