The Pathology Facilities and Operations team manages facilities, equipment, and safety and compliance for the Department across multiple sites – Westwood, the Bruin University Reference Laboratory (BURL), Santa Monica Medical Center, The UCLA Immunogenetics Center (UIC), Olympic Analytical Lab (OAL) and West Valley Medical Center (WVMC).

The Pathology Facilities and Operations team is comprised of three specialty groups: Pathology Facilities, Pathology Equipment, and Pathology Safety & Compliance. The groups work seamlessly together to maintain operations and execute high-level projects across our multiple locations. They are also a key component for successful department events, ensuring appropriate A/V and technical support and event management. They have supported large-scale events including Research Day and department appreciation events.

The Facilities teams manages Pathology-owned spaces and laboratories, including key/badge access, office/workstation installs, vendor management, furniture procurement, and partnering with University Facilities to address issues/damage requiring work by teams outside of the department.

Pathology Equipment manages department equipment and maintenance, not limited to microscopes, computers, conference rooms, and other required equipment. They also assist with requests for equipment relocation, software requests, and interfaces with ISS and DGIT for seamless workstation installations.

Pathology Safety & Compliance assists with pre-inspection and inspection requests, reporting for Chemical/Biohazardous Spills (post-event), Reporting Accidents (post-incident, research-side only), Laboratory Onboarding/Decommission, Emergency Preparedness, capital lab equipment requests, training, and general safety practices.

The Pathology Facilities and Operations team is a vital part for the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. They provide essential resources to ensure maximum efficiency within our facilities to foster a safe and productive environment to further our Department’s commitment and UCLA Health’s mission to deliver leading-edge patient care, research, education, and community engagement. Thank you Facilities and Operations team, for all you do to help our Department provide outstanding patient care, research, education and administrative activities!!!

• Lindy Coe – Manager
• Joe Church – Supervisor
• Emily Irineo – Administrative Assistant III (supports PAS & Facilities)
• Jessica Martinez – Facilities Management Specialist, Pathology Equipment
• Teresa Mejia – Facilities Analyst
• Amari Moore – Facilities Analyst
• Christopher Pang Gonzalez – Safety & Compliance
• Ricardo Zaragoza – Facilities Management Specialist, Pathology Equipment

L to R: Emily Irineo, Teresa Mejia, Jessica Martinez, Joe Church, Amari Moore, Ricardo Zaragoza (Not pictured: Lindy Coe and Christopher Pang Gonzalez)

Dr. Chana Sachs at her new ergonomic workstation, both sitting (left) and standing (right).

Dr. Daniel Stefanko at his new ergonomic workstation, both sitting (left) and standing (right).

The Hemepath Fellows updated signout space equipped with a multi-headed scope.

The Hemepath Fellows room with new workstations and storage solutions.

The Business Office Hoteling Space Breakroom with a new kitchenette, table, and chairs creates a relaxing space for the teams' lunch breaks.

 

You may have noticed you have not seen Lindy Coe, Facilities and Operations and Pathology Administrative Services Manager for Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, on site recently. This is because Lindy has embraced a new and profoundly special project: motherhood. We are thrilled to share that Lindy and her husband, Garth, welcomed their beautiful daughter, Poppy Maureen Coe, into the world on March 20th—two weeks ahead of schedule, eager to meet her loving family.

Lindy has been a cornerstone of our operations, guiding her teams with dedication and expertise. From overseeing vital Facilities projects to deftly managing unforeseen faculty needs, her contributions have been nothing short of exceptional.

Please join me in extending heartfelt congratulations to Lindy and Garth as they embark on this joyous new chapter with baby Poppy.

Residency Program Director – Dr. Zhen Mei

I am pleased to announce Dr. Zhen Mei will be assuming the role of Residency Program Director beginning July 1, 2025. Dr. Jonathan Zuckerman will serve as the Residency Program Senior Advisor over the next year to ensure a smooth transition as he focuses on expanding his renal pathology commitments.

Dr. Mei has a long-standing passion for education. He has been serving as our Associate Residency Program Director for CP since 2021. He completed his residency at the University of Chicago, followed by a Transfusion Medicine fellowship at UCLA. He is passionate about education and since joining the UCLA faculty, has created a new coagulation curriculum for the residents, served on both the Phase 1 and Phase 2 Curriculum Revision Committees, participated in the Pathology Interest Group and was one of the Specialty Advisors for Career Exploration in Pathology for the DGSOM medical students. 

His institutional knowledge and passion for medical education will serve him well in this role.

Dr. Mei will be stepping down from his role as the Associate Residency Program Director, CP as of July 1, 2025. The Department was thrilled to receive many strong applications for new Associate Residency Program Directors and we anticipate announcing the new APDs soon. 

I would like to thank Dr. Zuckerman for all his hard work, dedication, and commitment to resident education over the past three years. He has been a passionate and committed voice for resident educational needs since his days as a Chief Resident and we all are grateful for his efforts and service. 

Dr. Zuckerman also wanted to share the following message. "I am thrilled to have Dr. Mei take on the primary leadership role for the residency program. He has been an integral part of residency leadership during my tenure and he is well prepared for this new role. I look forward to the bright future of the residency program with him at the helm. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude and appreciation to all of you for the honor and privilege it has been to serve as residency program director for the past several years. It was a difficult decision to transition away from this role; however, my activities in the nephropathology arena are expanding and I hope to dedicate more of my time to these pursuits. I look forward to continuing to support the residency program as an advisor in the next year."  

 

On April 14, 2025, we celebrated Pathologists’ Assistant Day (PA) Day! We appreciate each of our Pathologists’ Assistants for the critical role they play in supporting pathologists, residents, and fellows in providing high quality patient care.

Our amazing PA team includes:

Leadership

• Jennifer
• Jessica

Santa Monica

• Maria
• Mariah

Westwood

• Lenny
• Justin
• Irving

PA Students

• Aley
• Elizabeth

 

The American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Medical Laboratory Professionals or Lab Week, was observed April 20-26, 2025 – ASCP selected a Scooby-Doo theme this year. Lab Week is an annual celebration of medical laboratory professionals and pathologists who play a vital role in health care and patient advocacy.  Our department hosted daily activities throughout Lab Week including puzzles, yoga, a Sound Bath, and scavenger hunt.  A special thank you to Heidi Martinez, Maya Rivers, and the One Lab Committee for arranging the department activities!

The BURL team cruising in their Mystery Machine (L to R): Stephanie, May, William, Cris, Evgeniya

DNA Day – April 25, 2025

Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, which coincided with the 50th anniversary of the discovery by Watson and Crick of the structure of DNA, the date of April 25th has been designated worldwide as "DNA Day." (Their one-page paper was published in the April 25, 1953 issue of Nature.)

In honor of DNA Day, Dr. Wayne Grody hosted a celebratory event offering a screening of a wonderful 1986 British film Race for the Double Helix (starring Jeff Goldblum as James Watson). Despite its high quality, access to this film is very rare, as it has never been issued on VHS or DVD (in the US, it was broadcast once on the A&E Network). Dr. Grody was able to obtain a digital copy and shared the movie with the Molecular Diagnostic Laboratory group to celebrate DNA Day.

Thank you Dr. Grody for this wonderful event!

 

 

CAP Spring Residents' Forum took place on Saturday, March 22, 2025 in Boston. The Forum fosters career development and educational enrichment for residents. Dr. Cullen Lilley is a Member-at-Large for the Resident Forum Executive Committee. He helped plan the meeting and also moderated a session. Other Resident attendees include Dr. Erica Fermon, Dr. Joe Giessinger, and Dr. Rosa Valencia.

Dr. Cullen Lilley (left) moderating a panel session.

Resident attendees (L to R): Dr. Cullen Lilley, Dr. Erica Fermon, Dr. Rosa Valencia, and Dr. Joe Giessinger. 

 

The United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology Annual Meeting took place from March 22-27, 2025 in Boston, Massachusetts. Please review our full list of Department events.

 

Dr. Precious Fortes, Cytopathology Fellow, presenting her poster "BAP1 Loss on Immunocytochemistry an its Association with Monosomy 3 in Uveal Melanoma Fine Needle Aspirations: Prognostic and Clinical Insights from a Single Institution Study." Other department collaborators include Michelle Nguyen, Po Chu Fung, Dr. Erika Rodriguez, Dr. Teresa Kim, and Dr. Neda Moatamed.

 

Pictured (L to R): Dr. Yuna Kang, Dr. Precious Fortes, Dr. Dipti Sajed, Dr. Shino Magaki, and Dr. Peggy Sullivan.

Dr. Jitin Makker presenting his poster "Combined High-Risk HPV Infection: A Follow-Up Study." Other department collaborators include Dr. Precious Fortes, Vu Nguyen, Dr. Neda Moatamed, and Dr. Erika Rodriguez.

Dr. Donovan Sandoval-Heglund, incoming PGY-1, presents his poster "Clinicopathologic Features of Colorectal Endometriosis: Pre-Operative Diagnostic Pitfalls." Also pictured, Dr. Sarah Dry.

Dr. Weibo Yu, PGY-3, presenting his poster "Efficacy of Direct-to-Digital SmartPath MUSE Microscopy for Histological Evaluation and DNA/RNA Extraction Analysis on Human Tissue Samples." Department collaborators include Dr. RongRong Huang, Dr. Anthony Sisk and Dr. Jianyu Rao.

Dr. Ruoji Zhou, PGY-2, and Dr. Peggy Sullivan presenting their poster "Intraoperative Assessment of Breast Sentinel Lymph Nodes: Academic versus Community Practice."

Dr. Sarah Dry presenting "False Friends in Soft Tissue Pathology." 

Dr. Shino Magaki presenting "Vascular Lesions of CNS from Cerebrovascular Disease to Vascular Malformations."

Dr. Jianyu Rao presenting a slide-free digital tissue imager, SmartPath MUSE Technology.

 

Dr. Rao was also featured in MUSE Technology Podcasts.

Dr. Dipti Sajed presenting "Borderlands in ENT Pathology: Salivary Gland."

(L to R) Dr. Carlos Casiano (Former Chief Resident), Dr. Trang Lollie (Former Chief Resident), Dr. Weibo Yu (PGY-3), Dr. Precious Fortes (Cytopathology Fellow), Dr. Ruoji Zhou (PGY-2)

(L) Dr. Sarah Dry and UCLA Pathology alum, Dr. Vania Touros

(R) Dr. Sarah Dry and UCLA Pathology alum, Dr. Sebastian Sasu

Dr. Sarah Dry with former UCLA Pathology Faculty, Dr. Rena Xian

Dr. Bogdan Pasaniuc was the invited Nathan Kaufman Timely Topics lecturer. Also pictured, Dr. Sarah Dry.

Pediatric Pathology Chiefs Symposium at Boston Children’s Hospital during USCAP. Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein pictured, middle with bow tie. 

PLUGS Summit – Seattle, WA

Congratulations to Dr. Allison Chambliss, Dr. Khalda Ibrahim, Charlemagne (Carlo) Isip, William Werre, and Dr. Alyssa Ziman on winning the Best Abstract Award at PLUGS Summit with their abstract "Electronic Health Record Integration of Referral Lab Requisition Forms Reduces Clerical Errors and Delays."

The PLUGS Summit was held from April 2-April 4, 2025 in Seattle, WA. PLUGS (Patient-centered Laboratory Utilization Guidance Services) is a laboratory stewardship collaborative with a mission to improve laboratory test access, ordering, retrieval, interpretation and reimbursement.

Dr. Allison Chambliss with the winning abstract.

(Left) Dr. Khalda Ibrahim with the winning abstract. (Right) Dr. Allison Chambliss and Maria Estrada, Program Manager.

(L to R): Dr. Allison Chambliss, Maria Estrada, and Dr. Khalda Ibrahim on the Seattle waterfront.

 

 

 

 

The Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) Spring Committee Weekend was held April 25-26, 2025, in Washington, DC. Dr. Allison Chambliss attended the ADLM Academy Council meeting and Dr. Imir Metushi attended the ADLM Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians (SYCL) Core Committee meeting. Both pictured below.

American Board of Pathology – Pediatric Pathology Test Development and Advisory Committee Annual Meeting

The Pediatric Pathology Test Development and Advisory Committee (TDAC) meets annually and writes and reviews pediatric, perinatal, and placental pathology questions for the subspecialty board examination. TDAC also designates pediatric questions that may also be appropriate for inclusion on the anatomic and clinical pathology examinations. TDAC provides guidance on the content specification document for pediatric pathology and participates in the periodic modified Angoff standard setting to determine the pass-point for the examination. Dr. Jeffrey Goldstein has been a member of the committee since 2005 and has chaired the committee as an ABPath Trustee since 2015.

Pictures courtesy of the American Board of Pathology on X

The Molecular Diagnostics Laboratories (MDL) successfully launched the 221-gene Hematological Malignancy DNA sequencing Panel test on March 17, 2025. The 221-gene panel test replaced the 54-gene panel test in use since 2016. The new panel enables a high-volume hematological malignancy test to be performed in house with better turn-around-time, as well as provides up-to-date comprehensive molecular results for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment to improve patient care.

The successful development of the new test was a collaborative effort from various specialty areas of the MDL group. Key contributors are shown below.

• MDL directors – Dr. Lily Zhang, Dr. Dinesh Rao, Dr. Niroshi Senaratne, Dr. Anamaria Munteanu, Dr. Sheeja Pullarkat, and Dr. Manando Nakasaki
• Laboratory – Dr. Helen Jin, Thien, Yan, and Annabella
• Bioinformatics – Dr. Kajia Cao, Ian, and Dr. Xiavan Roopnarinesingh
• Variant curation – Dr. Diana Golden and Dr. Layal Abi Farraj
• CareConnect – Svetlana 

(Back Row L to R): Dr. Xiavan Roopnarinesingh, Thien, Dr. Dinesh Rao, Ian, Dr. Manando Nakasaki

(Middle Row L to R): Dr. Layal Abi Farraj, Dr. Anamaria Munteanu, Yan, Dr. Kajia Cao, Dr. Sheeja Pullarkat, Annabella

(Front Row L to R): Dr. Lily Zhang, Dr. Helen Jin, Svetlana

Not Shown: Dr. Niroshi Senaratne and Dr. Diana Golden

Dr. Jennifer Chia was spotlighted by the Broad Stem Cell Research Center in a YouTube video on Improving Blood Cell Production as We Age. Dr. Chia is investigating why our bodies produce fewer blood cells as we age — a reality that makes us more vulnerable to infections and blood cancers.

Dr. Omai Garner and Dr. Lu Song were featured in a UCLA Health News article "Automated blood tests deliver life-saving results in minutes." The article discusses how the UCLA Health clinical laboratory operates around the clock to process every tube of blood drawn in the hospital, emergency room, and nearby clinics.

Congratulations to Dr. Shaun Yang and collaborators on their recent publications:

Congratulations to Dr. Yazhen Zhu and collaborators on their recent publications:

 

 

Our Pathology Art Collective showcases the creativity of the members of our Department. We are now accepting submissions to be displayed and featured here, which may include paintings, drawings, photography, poems, etc. If your creativity involves home improvement projects, cooking, gardening, sewing, theater, musical performance etc., please feel free to submit photos. Please send your submissions to Rachel Parks (reparks@mednet.ucla.edu). 

 

 

Congratulations to our Caption Contest Winner, Kelly Bartlone, with the caption “From tissue slides to paint vibes!”

The below photo captures (left to right) Fiona Lane, Dr. Rak Tyagi, and Dr. Maggie Tsang at a recent resident activity.

May Contest

The below photo captures (left to right) Dr. Kene Ojukwu (Faculty), Dr. Precious Fortes (Cytopathology Fellow), Dr. Trang Lollie (Former Chief Resident), and Dr. Carlos Casiano (Former Chief Resident) attending the USCAP in Boston.

Please send your captions to Anastasia (agustafson@mednet.ucla.edu) by Monday, May 12, 2025 for a chance to win a prize! One entry per person.

April Grand Rounds    

 

Friday, April 25, 2025 at 8:00 AM PT 
Clinical Seminar Series - Topic: Transfusion Medicine
Claudia Cohn, MD, PhD
Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology
Director, Blood Bank Laboratory
Associate Director, Clinical Laboratories
University of Minnesota

 

May Grand Rounds      

 

Valter Longo, PhD
Professor of Gerontology and Biological Sciences
Edna M. Jones Chair in Gerontology
Department of Gerontology
University of Southern California