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Welcome to Pathology's Bi-Weekly Bulletin | April 14, 2025

🔬 Medical Laboratory Week | April 13–19, 2025

This week, we join labs across BC and Canada in celebrating Medical Laboratory Week — a time to recognize the vital work of laboratory professionals in health care and public health.

  • Looking Back on Our Journey
    As part of Lab Week, we’ve put together a timeline of our department’s progress and contributions since 1949 — a reminder of how far we’ve come. This is just a starting point, and we welcome additions of key milestones or significant moments we may have missed. Explore our department’s history
  • Celebrating BCCDC Labs
    In honour of Lab Week, we’re highlighting the incredible work of our BCCDC colleagues. From pandemic response to ongoing innovation in public health testing, their teams continue to lead with impact and speed. See what they’ve been up to
  • PLMS Speaker Series
    Staff are invited to the PLMS Medical Laboratory Week Speaker Series, covering:
    • Session 1: CAMLPR: What does it mean for me? 11-12pm, Monday, April 14 – Meeting ID: 253 767 330 814, Passcode: TK6TJ3RC
    • Session 2: Neurodiversity at Work, 11-12pm, Tuesday, April 15 – Meeting ID: 299 130 294 759, Passcode: 2WU6PN2V
    • Session 3: AI and the Lab, 10:30-12, Wednesday, April 16 – Meeting ID: 254 423 684 335, Passcode: q37bE3bk
      Full schedule

Let’s celebrate the work and impact of our lab teams across BC!

 

Weekly Province-wide Pathology Rounds

🩺 Upcoming Weekly Rounds – April 18, 2025

Please note that there will be no departmental rounds this Friday due to the Easter weekend. Rounds will resume as usual the following week.

💻 Attend via Zoom only:

PLEASE NOTE: The Zoom information for this recurring meeting has been updated. If you saved the old Zoom link somewhere, please update your records.

NEW Zoom Link: https://ubc.zoom.us/j/66114231597?pwd=CRlUz4RaIaMwegbg7ClYWYK3aikAI5.1

Meeting ID: 661 1423 1597 Passcode: 564976

🔁 Missed a session? View recordings of previous rounds here: Past Rounds Archive

💡 Have ideas for future rounds or speakers? We’d love to hear from you! Email us at pathassist@pathology.ubc.ca
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🧠 Congratulations to Dr. Cheryl Wellington on Major U.S. Department of Defense Grant

We are pleased to share that Dr. Cheryl Wellington, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, UBC, has been awarded a U.S. Department of Defense Operating Grant totaling $8.2 million (2025–2029) for her research titled: "Translational Approaches to Understand the Pathophysiology of Traumatic Brain Injury and Nonfatal Strangulation in the Context of Intimate Partner Violence."
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🧬 CIHR Team Grant Awarded to Dr. Hélène Côté

Congratulations to Dr. Hélène Côté, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, on securing a CIHR Team Grant totaling $2 million over five years. This funding supports her research on the long-term effects of antiretroviral therapy in women and children living with HIV.​

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🎉 Congratulations to Dr. Alberto Delaidelli on his acceptance into the neuropathology residency program at Harvard University!

We would like to extend our congratulations to Dr. Alberto Delaidelli on his acceptance into the neuropathology residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital/Brigham Hospital/Harvard University!

Dr. Delaidelli is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Sorensen Lab at BC Cancer, where he researches novel approaches to target childhood brain cancers. During his PhD thesis and two years of additional post-doctoral work in the Sorensen laboratory, Dr. Delaidelli has been a co-author on 33 articles (with likely more to come), a remarkable achievement for a trainee.

Thank you, Dr. Delaidelli, for your contributions to the Department over the past several years. We wish you all the best on your new chapter in Boston.

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🏅 Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Ji

Dr. Jennifer Ji, an MD/PhD student at UBC and Vanier Scholar, has been awarded the first-ever Society for Pediatric Pathology USCAP Pathologist-in-Training Award at the 2025 USCAP annual meeting. The award recognizes her presentation of the abstract “The Proteomic Landscape of Pediatric Osteosarcomas,” co-authored with collaborators from across the field.

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🌟 UBC Open Education Champion – Dr. Jennifer Kong

Congratulations to Dr. Jennifer Kong, Adjunct Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, UBC, and Instructor – Dept of Basic Health Sciences, School of Computing & Academic Studies, BCIT. She has been recognized as a 2024/25 UBC Open Education Champion for her work on the Undergraduate Pathology Textbook, created in partnership with the UBC David Hardwick Pathology Learning Centre (DHPLC). Since its launch in December 2022, the textbook has gained international attention and continues to grow through partnerships like the one with LifeLabs.


📄 🔗 View the full list of OER Champions

📰 Recent Publication

  • Destabilization of PF4-antigenic complexes in heparin-induced thrombocytopenia
    Lead Author: Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu
    Congratulations to Dr. Jayachandran Kizhakkedathu, Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC, on the publication of a new therapeutic approach for HIT in the journal Blood, in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania.
    📄 Read Publication
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🧪 New Personalized Cancer Treatment Method Developed at UBC

A research team led by Dr. Philipp Lange, Associate Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UBC, in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Bush, Clinical Associate Professor in our department, and colleagues from BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, has developed a new way to match young cancer patients with the right treatment — by growing patient tumours in chicken eggs and analyzing their proteins.

This approach helped identify a drug for a young patient’s rare cancer by targeting a protein weakness missed by genetic testing. The work, part of the national PROFYLE and BRAvE initiatives, was published in EMBO Molecular Medicine and featured by UBC News.
📄 Read the full publication

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🧭 BCCA Pathology Annual Retreat 2025

The second annual Pathology Retreat was held at the UBC MSAC, bringing together 21 medical scientific staff, one manager, and key support staff from the BC Vancouver laboratory and provincial programs. Dr. Helene Anderson represented BC Cancer executives.

The retreat featured insightful presentations from Drs. Helene Anderson, Alex Wyatt, Gang Wang, Jinesa Moodley, Diana Ionescu, Stephen Yip, and Graham Slack. Topics included:

  • The provincial tiered service model and strategic alignment (Dr. Anderson)
  • CGL’s newly developed strategic plan (Dr. Wyatt)
  • Annual achievements, lessons learned, and future planning (Dr. Wang)
  • Integrating surgical pathology with molecular diagnostics (Dr. Ionescu)
  • Specialized practice and workflow optimization (Dr. Moodley)
  • Advances in lymphoma diagnostics (Dr. Slack)

Dr. Zu-hua Gao led a productive SWOT analysis, guiding discussion around subspecialization, workflow, and integration strategies. A set of strategic priorities and an action plan emerged from the session.

📹 Watch the retreat highlights
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🧪 Save the Date: LabQCon 2025 – June 16–17

Join us for the 11th Laboratory Quality Conference (LabQCon 2025) hosted by UBC’s Program Office for Laboratory Quality Management (POLQM).

  • Theme: Tools and Best Practices to Promote Diagnostic Quality
  • When: June 16–17, 2025
  • Where: In-person at VGH’s Paetzold Health Education Centre and online
  • Focus: Equitable access to lab services and global discussions on diagnostic quality

This hybrid event brings together professionals and experts from around the world to explore quality innovations in laboratory medicine.

🔗 Visit the LabQCon 2025 Website
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📅 PathDay 2025 – Updates & Reminders

Visit the official event page for updates, registration, and event details: PathDay2025 →

✅ Abstract submission is now closed.
Thank you to everyone who submitted! The planning committee is currently reviewing abstracts and preparing the event schedule, which will be posted soon.

📌 Please register now so we can plan for space, catering, and logistics: Register for PathDay 2025 →

Childcare available: Complimentary childcare during the Awards & Networking Reception (5:15 PM+). Indicate needs during registration.

Pathology Picks:

Here are some additional reads you might be interested in:

  • Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Clinical Laboratories
    Recommendations and resources for appropriate testing, resource use, procurement practices and enhancing a culture of environmental sustainability. Read more → .
  • 🔬 UBC Molecular Biology Workshop – June 2–6, 2025
    The Michael Smith Laboratories will host an intensive 5-day Molecular Biology Workshop from June 2–6, 2025. This hands-on course is designed for graduate students, postdocs, and professionals looking to strengthen their molecular biology skills in both theory and practice.
    All proceeds support UBC's public science outreach programs, including K–12 education initiatives.
    Learn more and register here →
  • Nominations are now open for the 2025 Faculty of Medicine Awards. Submit your nominations by Friday, June 13, 2025. Read more →
  • Healthy UBC: April 2025 Read more →
  • Faculty & Staff Sports Day on Friday, May 2. For UBC Vancouver, register for one of two time slots by Wednesday, April 23. Read more →.

📣 Have News to Share?

Do you have a story, publication, award, event, or other exciting update to share with the UBC Pathology community?

We’d love to hear from you! Please reach out to Debbie Bertanjoli at dbertanjoli@pathology.ubc.ca.

Let’s celebrate our collective achievements and keep our community connected!