News & Events

In a recent article in Immunity, Ann Haberman has provided evidence for a new paradigm for germinal center differentiation. As described by Italian immunologists Marieta Caganova and Stefano Casola in their description on the "Faculty of 1000": "The authors challenge the current model of germinal center (GC) differentiation by developing a system to track antigen-specific B and T cells at their earliest moves prior to GC formation. The initial stage of GC differentiation takes place in the neutral interfollicular zone where, by induced Bcl6 expression, T follicular helper (Tfh) cell differentiation starts as early as 1 day post antigen encounter and precedes that of a B cell by 1 day. Interestingly, not only T, but also B, cell help is mutually inclusive for successful GC persistence."

Dr. Sheldon Campbell, Associat Professor of Microbiology, has been elected as the Chair of Division C (Clinical Microbiology) of the American Society for Microbiology, to begin his term in 2012. At the current time, another of our faculty members, Carol Ann Rauch, is Chair of the Division. The Amerian Society of Microbiology is the oldest and largest single life science membership organization in the world with more than 43,000 members, one third of whom are located outside the United States.

With Edward Snyder, MD, as PI, the Yale Department of Laboratory Medicine, collaborating with the Connecticut American Red Cross and Bridgeport Hospital, has been selected to receive the NIH grant "REDS-III" (Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation Study-III). This NHLBI initiative brings together leading researchers from the U.S. and abroad in the fields of blood banking and transfusion medicine. Continuing the efforts of REDS and REDS-II to improve blood safety and availability, REDS-III seeks to improve transfusion practices and outcomes in recipients of blood products, both in the U.S. and internationally.

The Yale-ARC-Bridgeport consortium is one of four United States centers. The REDS-III program will run for 7 years, and the award to Yale is 10.4 million dollars. One integral element of the research program will be the development of a database that collects “vein-to-vein” information on donors, component processing, and patients to allow for systematic study of the determinants of transfusion outcomes in patients.

The other U.S. centers will be the Blood Center of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI; the Institute for Transfusion Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA; and the University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA. Three international collaborative programs involving researchers in the U.S. and Brazil, China, and South Africa will participate in REDS-III.

Nancy A. Young, MD is currently President-elect of the American Society of Cytopathology, with her term as President to begin in November, 2010. Dr Young is also Chair of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Albert Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia and Professor of Pathology, Anatomy, and Cell Biology at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia.

Kimberle Chapin, MD, a former resident and medical microbiology fellow in our Department, was appointed Chair of the American Board of Medical Microbiology. The American College of Microbiology oversees all certification and accreditation activities of the American Society of Microbiology. Dr. Chapin is Director, Microbiology Laboratory, Lifespan Academic Medical Centers and Associate Professor of Pathology and Medicine at Brown.

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