Melissa Blessing, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pathology, was featured in The Gazette article, "Doctor lands 'dream job' in Johnson County Medical Examiner's Office" this past December about her new position at the Johnson County Medical Examiner's Office.

Pathology students from our Experimental Pathology PhD, Master of Science in Pathology, and Medical Laboratory Science programs receive scholarships from the Marilyn Ohm-Smith Pathology Student Scholarship Fund for 2025-26.

Jianyu Yu, a Ph.D. candidate in the Molecular Medicine Graduate Program at the University of Iowa under the mentorship of Dr. Bing Li, has received a Travel Award to attend the 4th Metabolic Dysregulation and Cancer Risk (MeDOC) Consortium Meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, where he delivered a short podium presentation.

A recent study published in Cancer Research by Drs. Jiaqing Hao and Bing Li in the Department of Pathology at University of Iowa provides fresh insight into how specific dietary fats shape triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) behavior.

Connor Wilhelm, Experimental Pathology PhD candidate in Alex Boyden’s lab, has received a travel grant from the National MS Society to attend this year’s Autumn Immunology Conference (AIC) in Chicago, where he will present a poster and short talk.

On Friday, October 17, we celebrated our Medical Laboratory Science students who received the David and Pamela Buhr Medical Laboratory Sciences Excellence Fund. Hanna Gee and Lexi McIntyre are fourth year students in the program who will begin clinicals next semester. Hanna will be completing her clinicals here in Iowa City and Lexi will be finishing her final year and clinicals through our partnership with Mercy College of Health Sciences.

Payton Kahl successfully defended her M.S. thesis on October 3rd, 2025 and completed the Pathology M.S. Program.

University of Iowa Health Care’s rare “brain bank” has contributed to a new study published in Nature that shows that repetitive head impact (RHI)-related brain injuries result in brain cell loss, inflammation, and vascular damage in young, former contact sport athletes. Importantly, many of these detrimental changes were seen in young athletes before the onset of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain condition that leads to problems with thinking and emotional regulation.

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.