Department of Pathology

Dr. Bing Li, the Endowed Professor in Cancer Immunology Research in the Department of Pathology, has been appointed Director of the newly formed Iowa Cancer and Obesity Initiative by the University of Iowa Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr. Bing Li is the most recent recipient of a Bridge to the Cure Award from the Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center (FOEDRC). The Bridge to a Cure initiative is designed to support members of the FOEDRC to accelerate promising research aimed at the development of novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment and/or prevention of diabetes.

In a recent Cell Reports article, Dr. Bing Li and colleagues demonstrated a high fat diet rich in fish oil induces hair loss via epidermal fatty acid binding protein in skin macrophages. The study was funded by the NIH. In addition to Drs. Hao and Li, the team included Rong Jin, Jun Zeng, Yuan Hua, Matthew S. Yorek, Lianliang Liu, Anita Mandal, Junling Li, Huaiyu Zheng, Yanwen Sun, Yanmei Yi, Di Yin, Qi Zheng, Xiaohong Li, Chin K. Ng, Eric C. Rouchka, Nejat K. Egilmez, and Ali Jabbari.

A pledge in the amount of $1,750,000 has been received from Dr. Jo Ann Benda and Dr. Charles Platz on November 9, 2022. This gift has been designated for two newly established funds. $250,000 will establish the Jo Ann Benda Surgical Pathology Excellence Fund for unrestricted support for the department’s three-part mission of education, research and patient care specifically related to obstetric and gynecologic surgical pathology. An additional $1,500,000 will establish the Jo Ann Benda Surgical Pathology Professorship to support an obstetric and gynecologic surgical pathologist at any rank who excels at anatomic pathologic practice and/or anatomic pathologic research and who coordinates with colleagues in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in patient care.

The study entitled ‘Distribution of High-Sensitivity Cardiac Troponin and N-terminal Pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide in Healthy Transgender People’ analyzed high-sensitivity cardiac troponin and N-terminal Pro-Brain Natriuretic Peptide (NT-pro-BNP) serum concentrations in healthy transgender people who had been on gender-affirming hormones (estradiol or testosterone) for at least 12 months.

Dr. Mariah Hassert, a Postdoctoral Scholar in the laboratory of Dr. John Harty, has been awarded an NIH F32 Fellowship entitled “Antiviral Lung Resident Memory T Cell Maintenance and Reinvigoration” from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Diet and the gut microbiome have emerged as important factors in regulating the pathobiology of multiple sclerosis (MS), an autoimmune demyelinating disease of the central nervous system. The Mangalam laboratory has previously shown that individuals with MS have distinct gut microbiota, with a specific depletion of gut bacteria responsible for metabolism of dietary phytoestrogen. The importance of phytoestrogen-metabolizing gut bacteria in preventing MS has been verified by the Mangalam laboratory using a mouse model of the disease (experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis or EAE), where a diet rich in isoflavone (a type of phytoestrogen) protected from severe disease.

he Post-Comprehensive Research Fellowship is awarded to students to recognize their distinguished academic achievement and to provide protected time for research. Kimberly is a PhD candidate in the Experimental Pathology program working in the lab of Dr. Marco Hefti. Her dissertation uses a combination of human tissue and human-derived stem cell models to answer questions about how the tau protein contributes to different types of neurodegenerative diseases.

Drs. Ashutosh Mangalam, Hans-Joachim Lehmler and Christina Camell were awarded a Collaborative Iowa-Minnesota Pilot and Feasibility Grant from the UI Fraternal Order of Eagles Diabetes Research Center. The grant is entitled ‘Environmental Toxicant Glyphosate Synergizes with the Western Diet to Induce Obesity by Increasing Gut Microbial Dysbiosis and Adipose Tissue Inflammation’.

Dr. Dao-Fu Dai received a five-year NIH R01 award entitled ‘Metabolic Reprogramming and FGF21 Signaling in Kidney Health and Polycystic Kidney Diseases’ from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK).