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Welcome to Pathology's Bi-Weekly Bulletin | January 23, 2026

Seasonal Celebration & Department Awards (Jan 15, 2026)

On January 15th, the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine came together for our annual Seasonal Celebration to recognize the outstanding achievements of our faculty, staff, and trainees. The event featured a departmental update, acknowledgment of accomplishments across our programs, and the presentation of both Faculty of Medicine Long Service Recognition Awards and Departmental Awards for 2025.

View the event photo gallery and award summary

PathDay 2026

The PathDay 2026 website is now live. Speaker information and a tentative program schedule are available. PathDay registration and abstract submission can be accessed directly through the website.

Please visit the site regularly for updates, deadlines, and program details.

Visit the PathDay 2026 website

Appointments and Promotions

Congratulations to Dr. Elizabeth Bryce on her approval as Clinical Professor Emeritus, effective January 1, 2026.

Congratulations to the following clinical faculty on their January 1, 2026 promotions, as approved by the Dean and President:

Jonathan Bush (Clinical Professor), David Goldfarb (Clinical Professor), Basil Horst (Clinical Professor), Launny Lowden (Clinical Assistant Professor), Dennis Orton (Clinical Associate Professor), Sophia Park (Clinical Professor), Junyan Shi (Clinical Associate Professor)

CIHR Update: Clinical Trials Registration and Reporting

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) requires researchers who received funding for a clinical trial in 2022 or later to register their trials and publicly disclose clinical trial results. Compliance with this policy is required to remain eligible for CIHR funding.

CIHR’s annual compliance monitoring process will begin in February 2026, with public reporting of results later this spring.

Researchers are encouraged to review the CIHR policy requirements: CIHR Policy Guide – Requirements for Registration and Disclosure of Results from Clinical Trials

Questions about these requirements or compliance monitoring can be directed to: clinicaltrials-essaiscliniques@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Research Funding

We are pleased to share that Dr. Cheryl Wellington, Professor and Vice Chair of Research, has received a Rapid Response grant from the Weston Family Foundation.

Her project, “Generation of Canadian reference intervals for plasma phosphorylated tau-217,” aims to define normal levels of the Alzheimer’s disease blood biomarker phosphorylated tau-217 in a representative sample of Canadians, supporting its use in diagnosis and future clinical research.

Read the Weston Family Foundation announcement

UBC FLEX Program – An Opportunity to Showcase Pathology

FLEX (Flexible Enhanced Learning) is a series of courses and protected time for undergraduate medical students, allowing them to explore topics in greater depth. As part of FLEX, students can engage in research and other scholarly activities as part of their training. Dedicated FLEX time varies by year and can be found here: https://mednet.med.ubc.ca/teaching/flex/course-overview/

Offering short-term projects through FLEX is an excellent opportunity to attract highly motivated students to ongoing projects and expose them to the breadth of research and clinical work within the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Projects may vary in complexity, topic, and duration, and can include academic research, educational activities, quality assurance initiatives, and creative or artistic projects.

Advertising a project is simple. The activity supervisor completes a brief activity proposal form, which is then posted in a FLEX repository accessible to all Year 1–4 medical students seeking FLEX placements.

More information on submitting a proposal:

• FLEX Activity Proposal Information
• FLEX Call for Proposals Guide (PDF)

Examples of previous FLEX projects can be found here: https://mednet.med.ubc.ca/teaching/flex/spotlight/

FLEX is described in detail in the Activity Supervisors handout: https://mednet.med.ubc.ca/teaching/flex/info-for-activity-supervisors/

Teaching – A Way to Flex Pathology as a Discipline and Medical Specialty

The department is actively exploring ways to increase faculty involvement in undergraduate medical education. Under the supervision of Dr. Diana Ionescu, Clinical Professor of Pathology and Pathologist at BC Cancer, Dr. Tetiana Povshedna, PhD Candidate in Dr. Hélène Côté’s laboratory and Teaching Assistant in the Histopathology Lab, developed a faculty survey.

Please complete this short survey to help the department better understand how Pathology and Laboratory Medicine is represented within FLEX, as well as teaching perceptions and barriers: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wtJ8sZdBJRLsSq

FANs of FNA (Fine Needle Aspiration) - highlights from the pathology workshop for UBC medical students at BC Cancer.

Interest in pathology grows exponentially when pathologists, trainees, and staff are willing to share their time and passion with students. This is such a story.

The workshop “FAN of FNA” marked a strong beginning in our efforts to ignite interest in pathology among UBC medical students, offering hands-on experience and mentorship.

Dr. Diana Ionescu led the “FAN of FNA” event, inspiring students with her passion. The event’s success was made possible by the contributions of Dr. Carlos Villamil, Dr. Chen Zhou, cytopathologists at BC Cancer, Tetiana Povshedna, and Mrs. Vennie Chu, Senior Histotechnologist, whose collaboration and expertise ensured a lively and engaging workshop.

Fifteen medical students were hosted at BC Cancer – Vancouver Centre for a 3-hour hands-on workshop. Dressed in blue protective gowns, students performed fine-needle aspiration on fresh chicken livers, prepared touch preps and smears, and manually stained them for microscopic evaluation.

Following the hands-on session, students examined and discussed the slides they prepared at a multi-headed microscope, followed by a presentation of common cytology diagnoses led by the workshop facilitators. While chicken liver FNA was a first for everyone, for most students this was also their first opportunity to use a microscope—an experience they will always remember.

The goal of the evening reflects Dr. Ionescu’s vision to guide medical students toward a love of pathology, a discipline that helps answer many of the “why?” questions encountered across all medical specialties. From this interest, future pathologists will naturally emerge.

Looking ahead, future workshops are already being planned, with the next event scheduled for early 2026 at another laboratory in the Lower Mainland. Department members are encouraged to support and participate in these initiatives as they expand across hospitals and UBC campuses.

If you share this vision, please take 5 minutes to complete our teaching survey. Your feedback is vital to advancing this work: https://ubc.ca1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3wtJ8sZdBJRLsSq

Submitted by:
Tetiana Povshedna, PhD Candidate, Côté Lab

Recent Publications

• Congratulations to Tara Spence, Clinical Assistant Professor, Eric McGinnis, Clinical Assistant Professor, and team on their recent publication.
  Technical validation and prospective clinical utility of optical genome mapping in acute leukemia workup
  The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, January 20, 2026.
  View publication

Notable Cases by Dr. Habib Moshref Razavi:

Today's notable case: A 45-year-old patient with persistent thrombocytosis underwent bone marrow evaluation. The marrow showed megakaryocytic hyperplasia with pleomorphic forms, including hyperlobulated “staghorn” nuclei (not shown). An interesting finding was the presence of prominent aggregates of sea-blue histiocytes, a reactive feature associated with increased marrow turnover. Molecular testing for JAK2 and BCR-ABL was negative, and further workup for CALR and MPL mutations was recommended for comprehensive classification under ICC and WHO-5 guidelines. (Aspirate Giemsa stain X50, 20 and 10. Trephine biopsy H&E x10 and 50 magnification respectively)