Pathology celebrates graduating residents, research symposium winners announced

Current pathology residents welcome the incoming residents.

The USA Department of Pathology celebrated its graduating class of residents on June 13, at the Faculty Club on USA's campus. The Class of 2024 residents and where they will be completing fellowships:

• Mohamed Masoud, M.D.
  Hematopathology fellowship at University of  Alabama in Birmingham
• Yusuf Ozcelik, M.D.
  Surgical pathology fellowship at University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia
• Travis Berry, D.O. (October 2024)
  GI fellowship at University of South Carolina, Charleston

The department welcomed three new residents to the residency program. The Class of 2028 residents and where they received their medical degrees:

• Maha Babker, M.D.
  University of Bahri College of Medicine, Sudan
• Huseyin Kilic, M.D.
  University of Health Sciences Gulhane Faculty of Medicine, Turkey
• Ardenne Martin, M.D.
  Louisiana State University School of Medicine, New Orleans

Guillermo Herrera, M.D., chair of pathology, welcomes the new class of residents, from left, Maha Babker, M.D.; Huseyin Kilic, M.D.; and Ardenne Martin, M.D.

Additionally, 13 residents competed in the Fifth Annual Allan Tucker Pathology Resident Research Symposium. The presentations were evaluated by a committee of judges, and winners were announced at the resident graduation party. 

This year’s winners were:

• First place: Muhammad Tahir, M.D.
  “Subtype- and Race-Specific Disparities in Immune Microenvironment of Breast Cancer”
• Second place: Charu Shastri, M.D.
  “Racial Disparity in Clinico-Pathological Spectrum of Incidental Prostate Cancer Diagnosed Following Transurethral Resection of Prostate (TURP): Observations from a Single Tertiary Care Center”
• Third place: Lingling Xian, M.D., Ph.D.
  “Increased SMAD4 Genomic Alterations and Downregulated Protein Expression Driving Aggressiveness Among Young Colorectal Cancer Patients”

Muhammad Tahir, M.D., received first place at the resident
research symposium.

The winners received book allowances of up to $400 for first place, $300 for second place, and $200 for third place. 

Serving as judges at the forum were Nestor Dela Cruz, M.D., clinical pathologist and associate professor; Santanu Dasgupta, Ph.D., assistant professor, head of the Mitochondria Research Laboratory, and member of the Cancer Biology Program at the Mitchell Cancer Institute; and Elba A.Turbat-Herrera, M.D., professor, director of pathological services at the Mitchell Cancer Institute, and director of the USA Health Biobank.

The symposium is named in honor of the late J. Allan Tucker Jr., M.D., who served as the Louise Lenoir Locke Professor and Chair of Pathology as well as the director of anatomic pathology.