Pathology

As Chair of the Department of Pathology at McGill University and as Chief of Pathology at the Montreal General Hospital and at the Glen site, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to the Foundation and to all the donors for their generous gifts. With your financial support, we have been able to recruit and retain top researchers and academic pathologists from across the world, many of whom have become the backbone of our department and are rising stars in their field of specialization!

Thanks to your donations, our research capacity has significantly increased from 88 publications in 2012 to 199 publications in 2019, our research grants have grown from $ 3.3M per year to over $ 20M per year, and our number of graduate students has quadrupled from 8 to 32 individuals. Our trainees and young pathologists are winning prestigious awards at national and international conferences and we can continue to provide our patients with the highest standard of diagnostic services – all thanks to the generosity of donors.

– Zu-hua Gao, MD, PhD, FRCPC, FCAHS
Professor of Pathology and Oncology
Dr. Doris Nunes-Collins Chair in Pathology
Chair, Department of Pathology, McGill University
Pathologist-in-Chief, McGill University Health Center

Dr. Mohamad Abdouh

The Leonard Ellen Ocular Pathology Fellowship

One goal of our laboratory is to understand the mechanisms governing ocular melanoma progression and to try to find novel therapies. Indeed, the prognosis is very poor for patients, as the mortality rates have not improved, owing to low efficacy of newly-proposed therapeutic strategies. Nowadays, radiotherapy is still the frontline intervention for most patients with ocular melanoma, but this treatment compromises visual acuity because of several intraocular complications. This illustrates a need for combined therapies aimed at reducing radiation doses. My goal, along with the team of Dr. Miguel Burnier, is to search for valuable molecular targets and develop an effective combined therapy to control intraocular disease, mitigate radiation-induced complications, and inhibit disease metastasis.

Dr. Chelsea Maedler-Kron

Brigadier-General Herbert Stanley Birkett Memorial Research Award (MGH)

I am currently focusing my research on Inflammatory Bowel Disease in children and young adults. Specifically, I am looking at how changes in the bowel (seen under the microscope) impact a patient’s long-term health and treatment decisions. I was also recently appointed Director of the Anatomic Pathology Residency Training Program at McGill University. In this new role, I focus on implementing new teaching methods, including the use of technologies such as 3D printing and augmented reality, to better train residents and medical students in diagnosing common diseases.

Ms. Christina Mastromonaco

The Henry C. Witelson Ocular Pathology Laboratory Award

Every year, across the globe, 20 million people go blind from cataracts. Unfortunately, roughly 20% of the patients that undergo cataract surgery will develop a complication called secondary cataract – or posterior capsule opacification (PCO) – which, once again, leads to blindness. Thankfully, treatment for PCO is available, and involves using a laser to eradicate these aberrations. Potential complications can occur, including those that may contribute to permanent blindness, and economic burdens exist, as the equipment associated with this procedure is expensive. Recent preliminary research from our group has led to the realization that not all intraocular lenses are created equal; some types of lenses have differences in size, shape, and material, and are more prone to develop PCO. Furthermore, patient-related factors (such as gender and age) and post- surgical factors also seem to play a role. Our goal is to identify characteristics of lens least likely to lead to PCO in order to guide manufacturers and thus reduce the millions of people that will suffer from this vision-threatening complication.

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