Aditya Joglekar and Quynh Pham, mentored by Nitin Karandikar, MD, PhD and Shujie Yang, PhD, were presented with the Richard G. Lynch Award Excellence in Pathology Research at the Medical Student Research Conference.

Shravan Kumar Kannan receives Ballard & Seashore Dissertation Fellowship for Spring 2026 Semester. Kannan is an Immunology PhD candidate in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Immunology and member of Vladimir Badovinac, PhD's research laboratory.

Kshitija Kale, MD. receives Ballard & Seashore Fellowship Award for Spring 2026 Semester. Dr. Kale is a student in our Experimental Pathology PhD program and a member of Nitin Karandikar, MD, PhD's research laboratory.

After 22 years in the Department of Pathology, Dr. Marcus Nashelsky has retired.

Nitin Karandikar, MD, PhD’s research laboratory focuses on the immune processes that underlie the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis, which is an immune-mediated demyelinating disease of the central nervous system (CNS). His research group was the first to show the unexpected finding that CD8+ T cells targeted toward CNS antigens can suppress disease activity and could potentially be used as a therapeutic approach.

In a recent case report published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, a 41-year-old male was referred to the University of Iowa with bronchiectasis, chronic sinusitis, and peculiar airway calcifications.

Vladimir Badovinac, PhD and his research laboratory were recently featured in the American Association of Immunologists for their article, titled The ability of memory CD8 T cell subsets to numerically and functionally recover following whole body irradiation is influenced by their history of cognate antigen exposures.

Banafshe Dolatyar, PhD, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Marco Hefti, MD’s research laboratory, received the Trainee Professional Development Award (TDPA) from the Society for Neuroscience.

Researchers in Zizhen Kang, PhD’s research laboratory, in collaboration with Ashutosh Mangalam, PhD’s research laboratory, have discovered that oligodendroglial lineage cells (OLCs)—traditionally known for producing myelin—actively contribute to neuroinflammation in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), a widely used model for multiple sclerosis (MS).

Mallory Shin, a student in the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Neuroscience and a member of Marco Hefti, MD’s research laboratory, received the Kwak-Ferguson Award in neuroscience.

We are pleased to share that Dr. Ashutosh Mangalam, Professor of Pathology, has been awarded an Honorary Professorship by the Old Herborn University Foundation in recognition of his contributions to microbiome research, particularly in the context of neurological diseases such as multiple sclerosis (MS).

The Bosch Lab, led by Dustin Bosch, MD, PhD, is studying how the gut microbiome is related to CAC development. IBD patients have perturbed microbiomes (dysbiosis), and specific bacteria (pathobionts) may promote carcinogenesis in the inflamed intestine.