Path Grand Rounds: Dr. Joshua Lieberman

This event has ended.

Faculty Sponsor

Larry True


Date & Time

January 20, 2021 at 1:30pm - 2:30pm

Location

Online Meeting


Description

Joshua Lieberman, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor, Assistant Director Molecular Diagnosis, Microbiology Section

Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Washington

 

"New and Improving Molecular Tools for Diagnosing Infectious Diseases from Histopathology"

 

Molecular methods in microbiology have emerged as important tools for identifying pathogens in pathology specimens, reducing turnaround time, and identifying organisms that are difficult to cultivate or challenging to classify by classical phenotypic methods. Prompt species-level identification often has important treatment implications. Anatomic pathologists play valuable roles in maximizing the yield of molecular microbiology assays by optimizing pre-analytical variables, including block and test selection guided by morphology. In addition to block selection, improvements in nucleic acid extraction methods from FFPE tissue and decalcification increase quality and quantity of extracted DNA. Finally, emerging in situ hybridization techniques and genomics offer exciting opportunities to identify pathogens in tissue when PCR-based assays fail.

 

Objectives for presentation 

At the conclusion of this presentation, attendees should be able to:

1. Recognize the value of histopathology in value of molecular microbiology through pre-test probability & block selection.

2. Describe two key pre-analytical variables that impact diagnostic yield of molecular microbiology testing performed on FFPE tissue.

3. Explain the use case for FISH as an adjunct diagnostic tool for tissue-invasive moulds.