Happy late Halloween from some spooky UAB Pathology skeletons! 💀 🎃 👻

The Department of Pathology is thrilled to welcome Niharika Shah, M.D., who joined the Division of Anatomic Pathology as an assistant professor, on November 1.

Read more about Dr. Shah here: bit.ly/4imptCk

Andrea Kahn, M.D., a professor in the Division of Women’s Health and section head of gynecologic pathology, was named the UAB Pathology 2026 Service Award winner. Congratulations, Dr. Kahn!

Read more about the award here: bit.ly/4jNRGmG

UAB Pathology faculty and trainees presented at the 2026 Tri-State Pathology Conference on October 24-25 at the Perdido Beach Resort in Orange Beach.

Read more about the presentations here: bit.ly/3UfVRNK

Victor Darley-Usmar, Ph.D., and Jianhua Zhang, Ph.D., recently received funding to provide UAB’s research community with state-of-the-art technology for measurement of bioenergetics in organoids and tissue slices.

Read more: bit.ly/4ik06zx

Chiamaka Umah, M.D., MPH, CIC., PGY3, recently presented a poster titled "Environmental Bioburden control: Performance Evaluation of Active pure Air purifier Verses Positive Pressure Airflow" at IDWeek on October 21-24 in Washington, D.C.

Case of the week: contributed by Dr. Gopal Kumar; Assistant Professor Genitourinary Pathology.
A 69-year-old man presents with a painless testicular lump. Scrotal ultrasound shows a 3 cm mass above the testicle.

Q) Which of the following is not part of the FNCLCC grade?

Fatima Igdoura, MBA, program manager II in the UAB Department of Pathology, is a recipient of the 2026 Dean’s Excellence Awards. Congratulations, Fatima!

Read more about the awards here: bit.ly/4hZxf4T

Dr. Cristina Magi-Galluzzi, Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair, recently attended the International Congress of the International Academy of Pathology in Fukuoka, Japan. She is pictured here at the meeting’s Gala Dinner.

We are proud to share our 2026-2027 trainee composite! This group is the heart of what we do. 💚

The UAB Department of Pathology recently funded a travel award to Joshua Kramer, Ph.D., who presented his research at the 2026 Masoro-Barshop Conference on Aging, October 8–11 in Bandera, Texas. Congratulations, Joshua!

Read more here: bit.ly/3WlAevS

Andrea Comba, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Neuropathology, recently received a Discovery Grant from the American Brain Tumor Association to support her research on glioblastoma.

Read more about her project: bit.ly/4rWIk9W

The 2026 Chair's Excellence Awards winners are Melad Dababneh, M.D., Chair's Award for Clinical Excellence, Daniel Tyrrell, Ph.D., Chair's Award for Research Excellence, and Megan Amerson-Brown, Ph.D., CIC, MLS, Chair's Award for Educational Excellence. bit.ly/4yn90CG

UAB Pathology researchers have found that resolved high blood sugar levels can still lead to long-term cardiac stress in a recently published paper in the Journal of the American Heart Association. @AdamWende @SamuelFChang @CardioMyocyteHa

Read more: bit.ly/4AZbQQF

Case of the Week: Contributed by Dr. Adeyi. A young adult with a history of HIV presents with epigastric pain. Upper GI endoscopic exam shows multiple erythematous mucosal nodules throughout the duodenum. A biopsy of a nodule was taken. H&E, ERG, and HHV-8 stains are shown.

What is the diagnosis?

D; The location for angiosarcoma is typically on the skin of the head or neck occurring in an older adult. The histology would show high infiltrative architecture with multilayering of endothelial cells, nuclear atypia, increased mitosis, and necrosis which is not seen here.

C; For pseudomyogenic hemangioendothelioma (PMHE) the cells typically have abdundant,eosinophilic cytoplasm organized in fascicles of plump spindle to epitheloid cells. Although this would be + for ERG, HHV-8 does not stain in this entity. PMHE is asso with SERPINE1-FOSB fusion.

A; Spindle cell hemangioma would have a biphasic pattern showing cavernous vascular spaces with solid bland and uniform spindle cell areas arranged in fascicles or sheets in between the vascular spaces.

The correct answer is B: Kaposi sarcoma. The images show a focus of slightly atypical ERG1 positive endothelial proliferations. HHV-8 staining is highly specific for Kaposi sarcoma which confirms this diagnosis.

We're pleased to share this month’s Molecular Case of the Month, “MDM2: The Gatekeeper of p53 and Cancer Progression,” presented by Mayowa Adekiitan, M.D., PGY2.

Watch the presentation here: bit.ly/4epnjPI