Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology

GI and Liver Pathology

The team of Gastrointestinal Pathologists at Yale is dedicated to provide state of the art diagnostic services pertaining to these disorders: Gastroesophageal reflux, Barrett’s esophagus, Helicobacter pylori gastritis, stomach cancer, colorectal polyps and cancer, inflammatory bowel disease, chronic hepatitis, cirrhosis, hepatocellular carcinoma.

GI and Liver Pathology Service

Diseases of the gastrointestinal tract constitute some of the most common human disorders. Almost everyone experiences some form of a GI ailment at least once during their lifetime. The common disorders include gastroesophageal reflux and Barrett’s esophagus, gastroenteritides including inflammatory bowel disease, gastritides including helicobacter gastritis, hepatitides including viral hepatitis B and C, fatty liver disease and pancreatitis. Cancer of large bowel constitutes one of the commonest malignancies in the developed counties and also remains one of the commonest causes for cancer-related mortality. Compared to colon cancers, cancers of the pancreas and liver are less common, but are amongst the most aggressive cancers with very poor prognosis. The team of Gastrointestinal Pathologists at Yale is dedicated to provide state of the art diagnostic services pertaining to these disorders. The team consists of highly qualified and experienced trained gastrointestinal pathologists who are outstanding clinicians dedicated to patient care. All our pathologists are fellowship-trained and experts in the field, with national and international recognition. Our faculty is committed to providing the best possible clinical care in a timely fashion and being at the forefront of academic medicine. All our pathologists are engaged in clinical and translational research related to gastrointestinal disorders that include liver tumors, pancreatic tumors, metabolic liver disease, Barrett’s esophagus, inflammatory bowel disease, motility disorders, gastrointestinal infections and colon cancer.

Services and Expertise

We see about 15,000 cases each year pertaining to the gastrointestinal tract, which include diagnostic biopsies, explants and resections. Being a tertiary care medical center, we see a high proportion of complex and rare cases, and frequently receive cases from other institutions within and outside the country for our expert opinion.

The Service strives for clinical and academic excellence. We are committed to provide outstanding and timely clinical care, and more than 90% of all diagnostic biopsies are signed out within 24 hours after arriving in the laboratory. We frequently interact with the clinical care providers to discuss complex clinical cases and believe in a team-based approach for best medical care. The division is well supported by an excellent histopathology laboratory and technical staff, and has a state of the art electron microscopy lab, molecular diagnostic lab, immunohistochemistry lab, and medical informatics. We offer all advanced ancillary tests required for the management of GI disorders, including molecular profiling of tumors and genomics, and offer advanced personalized medicine.

In the area of gastrointestinal pathology our faculty has a broad academic interest in the pathogenesis, diagnosis, therapeutic markers of neoplastic and pre-neoplastic lesions of luminal gastrointestinal tract, liver and pancreas. Our faculty is engaged in high quality clinical, translational and collaborative basic science research spanning wide spectrum of disorders. The broad clinical and translational areas where our faculty has either already published or currently working include Barrett’s esophagus, inflammatory bowel disease, hepatitis, colon cancer, liver tumors, pancreatitis, and pancreatic tumors. Major areas of ongoing research include pathologic and imaging correlations in liver cancer, phenotypic and genotypic correlation in liver tumors, adenocarcinomas of the gastroesophageal junction, intraductal pancreatic mucinous neoplasms, morphometric analysis of liver biopsies for sub-classification of cirrhosis and serrated polyps. Areas of collaborative basic science research where our faculty has been actively involved include graft vs. host disease and metabolic liver disorders.

Publications:

Director

Dhanpat Jain, MD

Director

Professor of Pathology and of Medicine (Digestive Diseases)

Director, Program in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology

Director, Fellowship in Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathology

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Pathologists

Andrea Barbieri, MD

Assistant Professor of Pathology

Co-Chair, Dean's Advisory Council for LGBTQI+ Affairs, Yale Medicine Outlist

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Romulo Celli, MD

Assistant Professor

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Joanna Gibson, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Pathology

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Liming Hao, MD

Associate Professor of Pathology

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ILKe Nalbantoglu

Associate Professor of Pathology

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Marie Robert, MD

Professor of Pathology

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Xuchen Zhang, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Pathology

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Education and Training

Faculty in the GI pathology Division are engaged in and lead educational efforts within and outside Yale University:

The faculty in GI pathology program are engaged in teaching at various levels and are committed to training of medical students, physician assistants, pathology assistants, residents and fellows. Faculty in GI program are involved in many seminars, symposia and courses nationally and internationally. The GI program offers two highly competitive one-year fellowships in Gastrointestinal Pathology, with an option of 2 years of additional research in a lab to suitable candidates. The faculty is actively engaged in research in GI and liver pathology, with collaborations that span many departments involving translational and basic science research.

• Yale School of Medicine: Energy and metabolism master course, digestive disease module, lectures and labs

• Residency and Fellowship Programs:

• Didactic lecturers

• Slides seminars

• Undergraduate Graduate Program: lecturer in MCDB315: Biological Mechanisms of Reaction to Injury

• Graduate Program: lecturer in CBIO 604: Systems Cell Biology

• Digestive disease section: Fellow pathophysiology lecture series

• Physician Assistant Students: Pathology lecture series

• Department of radiology and bioimaging: Liver neoplasms-Radiology and histology correlation

• ASCP: GI pathology course

• USCAP: interactive microscopy course: Morphology vs. Molecular Markers in GI Biopsy Diagnosis: How Not to Get Tripped Up When Integrating

• USCAP: interactive microscopy course, Palm Springs, CA-Liver pathology

GI and Liver Pathology

GI and Liver Pathology Service

Services and Expertise

Publications:

Education and Training

Surgical Pathology