Overview/Mission  

Jonathan Braun,M.D.,Ph.D. Chairman

Pathology is the study of the nature of disease - its cell biology and biochemistry. As an investigative discipline, pathology researchers identify the origins of disease and contribute to strategies for its treatment. As a medical discipline, pathologists engage in patient care as consultants and innovators for biochemical, molecular, and cell biology tests that guide diagnostic and treatment choices. Through these roles, the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA assists doctors and patients in making optimal decisions based on the latest diagnostic studies, using state-of-the-art instrumentation. Each month, approximately 500,000 samples, including 10,000 biopsy and cytology cases, are analyzed to guide the care of patients in UCLA Health System, and through our referral network regionally and nationally

Clinical Services

A major mission of the Department is to provide a full range of state of the art diagnostic services in the support of patient care for UCLA Health Services and the broader community. Although primarily based in Westwood, sites of activity include our sister campus, the UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center, and more recently the Olympia Medical Center Pathology Department in the mid-Wilshire district. Dr. Scott Binder, senior vice-chair, oversees these clinical services which have integrated the traditionally separated disciplines of Anatomic Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. He is assisted by Drs. Jonathan Said and Elizabeth Wager in those respective areas, and by Dr. Scott Nelson at the UCLA-Santa Monica Medical Center, and Dr. Tamar Baruch-Oren at the Olympia Medical Center. Outreach services, under the direction of Dr. Binder, project the unique clinical and technologic expertise of the division to the Southern California region, and to biotechnology and pharmaceutical partners across the United States.

Under this leadership, the Department is a center for internationally-recognized clinical scholars in many areas of disease. These include hematologic malignancy (Jonathan Said), cardiovascular pathology (Michael Fishbein), gastrointestinal disease (Galen Cortina), liver and kidney pathology (Charles Lassman), urologic pathology (Jianyu Rao), neuropathology (Harry Vinters), dermatopathology (Scott Binder), melanoma and sentinel node biology (Alistair Cochran). The department's comprehensive clinical program includes a major woman's health program, including breast (Sophia Apple), gynecologic pathology (Jianyu Rao), and an extensive cytopathology and fine-needle aspiration service also under the direction of Dr. Rao. This program includes more than 60,000 cases including more than 1500 FNA examinations. Research in this section encompasses new technology development, and major projects in risk assessment and chemoprevention in national and international NCI consortia. Dr. Scott Nelson heads a special focus on orthopedics and bone/soft tissue oncology based at Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Center, in collaboration with Dr. Sarah Dry.

The Clinical Laboratories, under direction of Dr. Elizabeth Wagar, performs more than 6 million tests from a menu of more than 1800 tests based at the Westwood and Santa Monica-UCLA Medical Centers, and the Primary Care Network of UCLA Health Services. A state of the art automated core laboratory in the new Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center where many of these are performed is overseen by Dr. Tony Butch, who also directs specialized toxicology and chemistry testing. The molecular diagnostics laboratory (Wayne Grody) is a leader in the Western United States for genetic disease, cancer diagnostics, paternity testing, twin zygosity, transplant engraftment, and specimen identification. The clinical cytogenetics laboratory (Nagesh Rao) performs over 6000 conventional, FISH, CGH, and spectral karyotypic evaluations for fetal testing and cancer diagnostics. The hematology laboratory (Linda Baum) provides comprehensive hematologic and flow cytometry analyses (under Sophie Song). The microbiology laboratory, headed by Dr. Michael Lewinski, includes a nationally-recognized center (under David Pegues) on molecular epidemiology of nosocomial infections. The Transfusion Medicine service (Alyssa Ziman) is the largest hospital-based donor program in the Western US, and directs more than 18,000 blood component preparations in support of the extensive transplant, oncology, and trauma services of the UCLA Health System. Immunology related testing is provided by The Clinical Immunology Research Laboratories, under the direction of Dr. Butch, as well as the Immunogenetics Center described below, which supports the internationally renowned Transplantation program at UCLA. The excellence of Clinical research in the Department was recently exemplified by Dr. Teitell receiving the Leukemia-Lymphoma Society Stohlman Award.

UCLA Immunogenetics Center

The UCLA Immunogenetics Center, under direction of Dr. Elaine Reed, is one of the foremost centers for research and clinical assessment in organ transplantation in the world. A key component of the Southern California organ procurement organization, it also is a major international hub for high-resolution molecular typing, analyzing over 25,000 individuals annually. Drs. Michael Cecka and David Gjertson direct a leading research program in large-scale population HLA genetics, transplant outcomes analysis, and organ allocation policy. Drs. Elaine Reed, Michael Fishbein, and Raj Rajalingham have led in the basic biology and clinical applications of post-transplant monitoring, championing the emerging recognition of humoral immunity as a mechanism in chronic transplant rejection, and the delineation of KIR gene polymorphisms in risk assessment and management of transplant and immune-mediated disease.

Clinical Research Services and The Sarkaria Biomarker Innovation Laboratory

Under the coordination of Dr. Elaine Reed, the Department operates a comprehensive set of clinical research core services. These include the NIH funded Translational Pathology Research Laboratory, directed by Drs. Sarah Dry and Jonathan Said which encompasses strategic tissue banks for 5 SPORE and Center programs, tissue microarray (Dr. Seligson), animal pathology (Dr. Rozengurt), and High Troughput Proteomics (Drs. Drake and LeBlanc). Seven NIH supported national reference laboratories are directed by department faculty, including the PLCO and D-TEC programs (under Drs. Chia and Goodglick), the Clinical Immunology Research Laboratories (under Dr. Butch), the UCLA Immunogenetics Center (under Dr. Reed), and the Alzheimer's Disease Center (under Dr. Vinters), and the AIDS-Lymphoma program (under Dr. Said). Clinical Informatics for the UCLA Clinical Translational Science Institute, directed by Dr. Drake, is fashioning an integrated environment for computational tools in patient ascertainment and annotation for the UCLA research community.

The Sarkaria Biomarker Laboratories were established in 2005 through a major endowment of Drs. Daljit and Elaine Sarkaria for translational research and innovation in clinical biomarkers. The newly constructed laboratories, directed by Dr. David Seligson, translate emerging signal pathway and genetic advances into standardized methods and analysis for medical decision making in cancer and chronic inflammatory diseases. Under medical and scientific leadership of Drs. Scott Binder and Paul Mischel, these clinical innovations are co-developed with academic and corporate research groups, and offered as regional and national clinical services through UCLA Outreach Services.

Basic Research and Training

Departmental research activities are devoted to basic mechanisms of disease pathogenesis, currently supported by over $24 million of grants in force. Areas of strength at UCLA include neurodementia and neuron-oncology (Drs. Liu, Mischel, Tidball, Vinters), immunology of chronic inflammatory disease (including atherogenesis, transplantation, inflammatory bowel disease, tumor immunology, and chronic mucosal infection- Drs. Berliner, Braun, Effros, Kelly, Cecka, Gjertson, Berliner, Ganz, Tontonoz, Dubinett, Dorshkind, Drake, Reed, Said, Sakamoto, Teitell, Wagar), and cancer biology (Drs. Baum, Braun, Dubinett, Goodglick, Chia, Cochran, Grody, Mischel, Schiestl, Rajasekaran, Hankinson, Rao). Department members play leadership roles in the UCLA Institute of Molecular Medicine (Dr. Braun, Teitell), and the Clinical Translational Science Institute (Drs. Braun, Drake, Mischel, Wagar), and the Institute for Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine (Drs. Dorshkind, Teitell).

Some recent highlights are LXR proteins in the regulation of inflammation (Dr. Tontonoz), Nipah virus and the molecular biology of emerging viral infection (Dr. Lee), the molecular ontogeny of stem cell development (Dr. Dorshkind), TCL-1 in B lymphocyte function and lymphomagenesis (Dr. Teitell), neurogenin-3 in malabsoptive diarrhea (Dr. Cortina), Na+K+ ATPase regulation of epithelial growth control and urologic neoplasia (Dr. Rajasekaran), and therapeutic molecular phenotyping in glioblastoma (Dr. Mischel).

The Cellular and Molecular Pathology Graduate Program (under direction of Dr. Rita Effros), now in its 25th year, includes 24 Ph.D. students, a T32 NIH training grant, and a highly competitive PathSTAR program for concordant residency and Ph.D. (or postdoctoral) post-M.D. training. The Department is the home for the interdepartmental training program in Molecular Toxicology (Dr. Hankinson), and three T32 NIH training grants for pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellows in Molecular Pathology (Dr. Dorshkind), Clinical and Fundamental Immunology (Dr. Braun), and Tumor Immunology (Drs. Dubinett and Teitell). Through a large portfolio of state and federal funding, this program has emerged as an important center for training and basic research in this critical area of biomedical and environmental studies.

Clinical Training

The department is a platform for the successful career development of its faculty and trainees. This development is the essence of the clinical and research vitality of the department, and our contribution to the discipline of pathology. Dr. Charles Lassman (Residency Director and Vice Chair for Clinical Education) has created a comprehensive program for clinical training and mentorship in the department. This includes a research residency track, with matriculants in pre- and post-doctoral research fellowships throughout the scientific communities of UCLA and Cal Tech, and opportunities for participation in a variety of translational research programs and technologies.

Clinical fellowships include hematopathology, microbiology, cytopathology, Women's Health, surgical pathology, neuropathology, GI/liver pathology, hematopathology, and cardiovascular pathology. The highly successful dermatopathology fellowship, directed by Dr. Binder, is a joint venture of Pathology and the Division of Dermatology, provides subspeciality training in an integrated environment of pathology and clinical dermatology services. Fellowships in cytogenetics, molecular pathology, and clinical genetics, are funded in part by an NIH T32 Clinical Genetics training grant.

In short, the Department is an exciting place, and I welcome you to explore the Department for opportunities in clinical and research training, scientific collaboration and partnership, and clinical services.

Jonathan Braun, M.D., Ph.D.
Chairman of Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
UCLA Medical Center