U C L A P AT H O L O G Y A N D L A B O R AT O R Y M E D I C I N E Q U A R T E R LY N E W S L E T T E R

Ho l id ay I ssue 20 14

Inside

Awards and Recognition 2

More Recognition/Spotlight 3

Publications 4

Events 5

2014 Pathology Holiday Party The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine celebrated the holidays at Carnesale Commons this year. Below are

highlights of the celebration. Photographs courtesy of Reed Hutchinson PhotoGraphics. More Pictures.

Lab Gives Back Initiative—Lab Week 2015

“Celebrate our little Superheroes”

As we celebrate the Superheroes of the laboratory, we would also like to celebrate the little superheroes of Mattel Chil-dren’s Hospital who make us into BIG Superheroes. We can show our support through the Chase Child Life Program.

Chase Child Life Program was established to ease the transition for pediatric patients of being admitted, having a proce-dure and being separated from their loved ones. They do not charge for their services. Your monetary gift is always appreciated and will be used to directly support our little superheroes and their families. For all monetary gifts, please make checks payable to “UC Regents” with a notation to Chase Child Life Pro-gram.

Please donate to Mattel Children’s Hospital UCLA Chase Child Life Program by giving your donation to Gabriela, Elizabeth, Allison, or Chanida on or before April 24, 2015.

If you have any questions, please email the Lab Support Services PRC at LSSPRC@mednet.ucla.edu

Not All Heroes Wear Capes, Some Wear Lab Coats

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Holiday Issue 2014 Awards and Recognitions Transfusion Medicine—We are proud to announce our 2015 recipient of the prestigious Loni Calhoun CLS Educational Scholarship and Conference Stipend Award – Maria-Elena R. Toledo, also known as Yang by her colleagues. This award is presented to individuals who demonstrate a passion for transfusion service, along with a thirst for knowledge. Its purpose is to encourage our staff to take initiative and be active in the Transfusion Medicine community through educa-tion and leadership.

Yang started her career as a generalist at the UCLA Medical Center, Santa Monica shortly after passing her board exam. During this time, her growing interest in Immunohematology led her toward choosing to pursue a career in the specialized area of Transfusion Medicine. In 2009, Yang joined the blood bank at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center working the night shift as a CLS. Despite the limited resources of the night shift, Yang hit the ground running and quickly learned to make critical decisions, consult with pathologists and deal with various situations. As a recipient of this award, she will be introduced by Ms. Loni Calhoun to the California Blood Bank Society (CBBS) committee; she will participate in the various meeting activities and bring current information to the laboratory staff. Yang is looking forward to the year with great excitement.

Transfusion Medicine—Voicu Suciu completed his one-year Clinical Immunohematologist Scien-tist (CIHS) training program in Transfusion Medicine! Voicu began his career as a Hospital Lab Technician at the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center. As he learned more about Transfusion Medicine, his desire to work in the blood bank as a CLS took wings. Voicu was so enthused that he was build-ing up his knowledge of the field even before he had applied for the CIHS position! Lacking hands-on experience, Voicu worked using his training period to focus on perfecting his technique. Voicu’s year of diligence, hard work and study paid off when in December, 2014, he passed the ASCP board exam as Technologist in Blood Banking. His determination and dedication are an inspiration to our entire staff.

Transfusion Medicine—After a year participating in CBBS activities, Alisa Wood, 2014 recipient of the Loni Calhoun CLS Educational Scholarship and Conference Stipend Award stated, “Becoming a member of CBBS was a great experience in 2014! The topics at the annual conference were relevant to the work that is done daily in transfusion services at UCLA. I also became a member of the Clinical Lab Scientist and the Publications committee for CBBS. These committees gave me the opportunity to discuss the topics to be presented at the fall meeting and also review scientific articles written by MDs and CLSs that are published on the CBBS website. I gained so much from being part of CBBS. I greatly appreciate the oppor-tunity to have had a year membership and scholarship for the three day conference.”

Rena Xian, our Molecular Genetic Pathology fellow, received an abstract achievement

award at the annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology for her work study-

ing diffuse large B-cell lymphoma entitled “Late-relapse diffuse large B-cell lymphoma

frequently represents recurrence of the original disease, and demonstrates evidence of

superimposed clonal heterogeneity and clonal evolution.”

American Society of Hematology — Abstract Achievement Award

2014 David L. Rimoin Award for Research Excellence in Medical Genetics

Cytogenetics Fellow, Dr. Jianling (Jenny) Ji (Mentor: Dr. Fabiola Quintero) received the 2014 David L. Rimoin Award for Research Excellence in Medical Genetics based on her “DYRK1Q Research Pro-ject”. The findings of her project have also been accepted for publication in the European Journal of Human Genetics 2015.

DYRK1A haploinsufficiency causes a new recognizable syndrome with microcephaly, intellectual disability, speech impairment, and distinct facies Jianling Ji, Hane Lee, Bob Argiropoulos, Naghmeh Dorrani, John Mann, Julian A Martinez-Agosto, Natalia Gomez-Ospina, Natalie Gallant, Jonathan A Bernstein, Louanne Hudgins, Leah Slattery, Bertrand Isidor, Ce dric Le Caignec, Albert David, Ewa Obersztyn, Barbara Wis niowiecka-Kowalnik, Michelle Fox, Joshua L Deignan, Eric Vilain, Emily Hendricks, Margaret Horton Harr, Sarah E Noon, Jessi R Jack-son, Alisha Wilkens, Ghayda Mirzaa, Noriko Salamon, Jeff Abramson, Elaine H Zackai, Ian Krantz, A Micheil Innes, Stanley F Nelson, Wayne Grody1,2,4,6 and Fabiola Quintero-Rivera*, European Journal of Human Genet-ics (2015), 1–9

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Holiday Issue 2014

Welcome New Employees February 2015

Patty Bonilla – HLT, Outreach Leticia Calzada – Adm. Specialist, Office of the Chair Rosa E. Contreras Cruz – HLT, Outreach Charmanie Jayasekara – CLS, Brentwood Katherine La Rosa – CPT II, Support Services Ofelia Markarian – CPT II, Support Services Ronaldo C. San Miguel – Sr. CLS Supervisor., Support Services Monick Thomas – CPT II, Support Services Felicity Wong – Sr. CLS Specialist, Cytogenetics

January 2015

LEFT TO RIGHT

Lynne Yang - CLS Sr. Supervisor, Cytoge-netics Staci Holmes - Gray: CPT II, SMH Diana Arango - Saenz: CLS, Immunoge-netics Rafael Silvestre - CLS, Brentwood David Doyle - Adm Specialist, Clinical Finance

Awards and Recognitions Continued...

“Making it Happen: The BURL Success Story”

Read about the BURL laboratory and its

remarkable achievements in just one and a

half years of operation. Article featured in

Employee News.

Staff at BURL in Panorama City

Congratulations to Dr. Scott Binder who

describers his journey, both personal and

professional, towards UCLA’s most recent

landmark partnership with China. | Read

More

Congratulations to Dr. Omai Garner, Dr. Lin-

da Baum, and others on the publication of

their paper in Journal of Virology “ Timing of

falectin-1 exposure differentially modulates

nipah virus entry and syncytium formation

in endothelial cells”. The paper is about the

discovery of a host molecule that can control

the attachment of hemorrhagic tropical vi-

ruses. | Read More

Dr. Joshua Deignan, Associate Director of

the Molecular Diagnostic Lab, attended and

presented at the Molecular Med TriCon

2015. He was quoted in an article in Ge-

nomeweb. | Read More

Dr. Jonathan Lucas, a talented resident

and clinical fellow in the department, is

now Chief Deputy Coroner in San Diego.

He was featured in the Los Angeles Times

on December 11, 2014. | Read More

April 2015

Back Row

Dan Margolis: Admin Analyst, Operations

Management

Timothy Lopez: HLT II, Cytology

Ginny Javier: CLS, Serology

Paul Ndawula: CPT II, SMH

Abraham Kurian: HLT I, BURL

Seated

Elizabeth Gomez: CPT II, Support Services

Blessie Anne Baldonado: CPT II, Support

Services

Kristel M. Lanting: CPT II, Support Services

Wah L. Davis: Cytotechnologist, Cytology

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Holiday Issue 2014 Publications: November 2014 – February 2015: Current and Recent Grads, Postdocs, Fellow & Residents

GSRs:

Maomeng Tong – Recent GSR (Jonathan Braun lab) A modular organization of the human intestinal mucosal microbiota and its association with inflammatory bowel disease. Tong M, Li X, Wegener Parfrey L, Roth B, Ippoliti A, Wei B, Borneman J, McGovern DP, Frank DN, Li E, Horvath S, Knight R, Braun J. Plus One. 2013 Nov 19;8(11):e80702. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080702. eCollection 2013

Michael Arensman – CMP Student (David Dawson lab) The CREB-binding protein inhibitor ICG-001 suppresses pancreatic cancer growth. Arensman MD, Telesca D, Lay AR, Kershaw KM, Wu N, Donahue TR, Dawson DW.Mol Cancer Ther. 2014 Oct;13(10):2303-14. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-13-1005. Epub 2014 Jul 31. Parissa Solaimani—recent GSR (Oliver Hankinson lab) Genome-wide RNAi high-throughput screen identifies proteins neces-sary for the AHR-dependent induction of CYP1A1 by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. Solaimani P, Damoiseaux R, Hankinson O. Toxicol Sci. 2013 Nov; 136(1):107-19. doi: 10.1093/toxsci/kft191. Epub 2013 Aug 31. Xin Rong—CMP Student (Peter Tontonoz lab) LXRs regulate ER stress and inflammation through dynamic modula-tion of membrane phospholipid composition. Rong X, Albert CJ, Hong C, Duerr MA, Chamberlain BT, Tarling EJ, Ito A, Gao J, Wang B, Edwards PA, Jung ME, Ford DA, Tontonoz P. Cell Metab. 2013 Nov 5;18(5):685:97. doi 10.1016/j.cmet.2013.10.002. Airie Kim—CMP Graduate (Tomas Ganz lab) A mouse model of anemia of inflammation: complex pathogenesis with partial dependence on hepcidin. Kim A, Fung E, Parkikh SG, Valore EV, Gabayan V, Nemeth E, Ganz T. Blood. 2013 Dec 19. Jeanette Grant—CMP Graduate (Steven Dubinett lab) A Novel Molecular pathway for snail-dependent, SPARC-mediated invasion in non-small cell lung cancer pathogenesis. Grant JL, Fishbein MC, Hong, LS, Krysan K, Minna JD, Shay JW, Walser, TC, Dubinett SM. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2014 Jan;7(1):150-60. doi 10.1158/1940-6207. CAPR-13-0263. Epub 2013 Nov 19. Cell Metab. 2013 Jul 2;18(1):106-17. doi: 10.1016/j.cmet.2013.04.021

Post Docs:

Thomas Zangle – Recent Postdoc (Michael Teitell lab) Live-cell mass profiling: an emerging approach in quantitative bio-physics. Zangle TA, Teitell MA. Nat Methods. 2014 Nov 25;11(12):1221-8. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3175. Yoko Kidani –Steven Bensinger lab) Lipids rule: resetting lipid metabolism restores T cell function in sys-temic lupus erythematosus. Kidani Y, Bensinger SJ. J Clin Invest. 2014 Feb 3;124(2):482-5. doi:10.1172/JCI74141.Epub 2014 Jan 27.

Nicole Valenzuela—(Elaine Reed Lab) Antibodies in transplantation: the effects of HLA and non-HLA anti-body binding and mechanisms of injury. Valenzuela NM, Reed EF. Methods Mol Biol. 2013; 1034:41-70.doi: 10.1007/978-1-62703-493-7_2.

Antibody-mediated graft injury: complement0dependent and comple-ment-independent mechanisms. Valenzuela NM, NcNamara JT, Reed EF. Curr Opin Organ Transplant. 2014 Feb;19(1):33-40. doi: 10.1097/MOT.000000000000000040.

Residents/Fellows:

Aaron W. James—Resident

An unusual complex karyotype in myopericytoma

James AW, Chang L, Shrestha S, Tirado CA, Dry SM. . J Orthop, Jan 2015; Accepted for publication.

Circulating tumor cells in sarcomas: A brief review.

Chang L, Asatrian G, Dry SM, James AW. Med Oncol. Jan 2015; 32(1):430. PMCID: in process. Communicating author.

NELL-1 expression in benign and malignant bone tumors. Shen J, LaChaud G, Khadarian K, Shesthra S, Zhang X, Soo C, Ting K, Dry SM, James AW. Biochem Biophys Res Commun, Mar 2015, Epub ahead of print.

NELL-1 in the Treatment of Osteoporotic Bone Loss. James AW, Shen J, Zhang X, Asatrian G, Goyal R, Kwak JH, Bengs B, Culiat CT, Turner S, Seim HB, Lyons K, Adams JS, Ting K, Soo C. Nature Communications, Mar 2015; Accepted for publication.

Review of microRNA in osteosarcoma and chondrosarcoma. Chang L, Shrestha S, LaChaud G, Scott MA, James AW. Med Oncol. Mar 2015; Accepted for publication.

Albert Su—Current Resident Malignant melanoma with neural differentiation: an exceptional case report and brief review of the pertinent literature. Su A, Dry SM, Binder SW, Said J, Shintaku P, Sarantopoulos GP. Am J Dermato-pathol. 2014 Jan;36(1):e5-9.doi: 10.1097/DAD.Ob013e31828cf90a Annie Wu—Current Resident Bifid cardiac apex in a 25-year-old male with sudden cardiac death. Wu A, Kay D, Fishbein MC. Cardiovasc Pathol. 2014 Jan-Feb; 23(1):59-60. doi:10.1016/j.carpath.2013.06.003. Epub2013 Aug 6.

Jennifer Woo Duodenal atresia in 17q12 Microdeletion including HNF1B: A New Associated Malformation in this Syndrome. Quintero-Rivera F, Woo JS, Bomberg EM, Wallace WD, Peredo J, Dip-ple KM. American Journal of Medical Genetics. 2014 Dec;164A(12):3076-82. Epub 2014 Sep 24.PMID: 2525656

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Holiday Issue 2014

UCLA Blood and Platelet Center

Every year, the UCLA Blood and Platelet Center holds a recognition luncheon for their most loyal blood donors. For the past five events, a patient has been introduced to his/her donors. This past year, Brandon Levine had the opportunity to meet and thank 40 of the 196 donors who saved his life. This event has succeed in catching the attention of the me-dia which helps us raise awareness of the need for blood donations. See Brandon’s story—More information

Brandon Levine and some of the many blood donors

whose blood he received at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical

Center after a horrific motorcycle accident last April.

For more information

Newsletter Committee: Arnold Scheer, Daisy Castro, Bushra Yasin, and Khanh Andrews

Send us your suggestions for future newsletters at : Email Dcastro@mednet.ucla.edu

Bruin Run Walk—Race through outer space

All pathology staff and faculty, and their families are invited to participate in the 16th annual Bruin Run/Walk 5K benefiting the Child Life Program at Mattel Chil-dren's Hospital. This year we will walk, jog and run in honor of eleven-year-old patient Riley, who was diagnosed last summer with stage 4 alveolar rhabdomyo-sarcoma. You can read his story, register for the 5K or donate at http://www.bruinrunwalk.com/#!team-riley/c1bkm. Please contact Leslie Chew or Tami Langevin for more information.

Heroes come in all types.

Donate Blood today.