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Fellowship Programs

The UC Irvine Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine has been growing steadily in size and strength, yet retains a kind and close-knit family ambience. Orange County has outstanding access to the outdoors, sea, diverse dining, and entertainment. Given the mild climate, sports such as tennis and golf can be played year-round. Orange County also has a number of safe cities with strong school systems including Irvine. We are passionate about all of our programs and welcome applicants who also feel the same way.

Fellowships Program contacts:

Elizabeth Hunt Elizabeth Hunt
GME Fellowship Program Coordinator
email:hunte2@uci.edu
Erika Somers Erika Somers
Sr. GME Program Coordinator
email:esomers@uci.edu

Cytopathology Fellowship

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the UC Irvine Medical Center offers a one-year ACGME-accredited Cytopathology Fellowship Program. The Program is designed to provide comprehensive training in diagnostic cytology including fine needle aspiration biopsy with surgical pathology and clinical correlation. Training will be provided in both gynecologic and non-gynecologic materials including interpretation of fine needle aspiration biopsied. Fellows are also responsible for the weekly cytology conference, a research project, the cytopathology review courses and on-site evaluation of biopsy procedures. In addition to cytopathology responsibilities, fellows will participate in surgical pathology cases of gynecologic oncology subspecialty and present them at weekly multidisciplinary tumor boards. They are exposed to research opportunities that are available in cytopathology, immunocytochemistry, and flow cytometry/image analysis.

Di Lu Dr. Di Lu
Program Director, Cytopathology Fellowship
Clinical Professor, Pathology

Gastrointestinal Pathology Fellowship

At the University of California, Irvine, we offer a one-year in-depth fellowship training in Gastrotintestinal and Hepatic Pathology. This fellowship provides an intense and focused training in all aspects of gastrointestinal, liver, pancreas and biliary tract disease with opportunities for clinical research. The GI service (approximately 8,000 cases annually) includes a full range of neoplastic and non-neoplastic conditions with special emphasis on inflammatory bowel diseases, colon cancers, gastric dysplasia/carcinoma, celiac disease and Barrett esophagus. We also have an active pancreas (more than 100 pancreatic resections/year) and liver (more than 250 biopsies and resections/year) service. The fellow will also be exposed to cytopathologic specimens from EUS guided aspirations from the GI and pancreato-biliary tracts.

The fellow participates with three fellowship trained GI/liver pathologists in sign-out of GI and liver surgical and biopsy material, frozen sections and consultation cases. The fellow will preview all cases and even provide preliminary diagnosis to the clinicians. The position is structured for graduated responsibility to the level of junior faculty and sign-out privileges may be granted during the second half of the fellowship. The fellow also takes a few weeks of call during the year, as an acting attending on the Surgical Pathology service. He/she will also supervise the gross room and teach rotating pathology residents. The fellow will be actively involved in resident teaching via interesting slide conferences and didactic lectures. The fellow also presents at the weekly GI/liver tumor board meetings. Funded research opportunities are available within the department and fellows will be expected to present their research at national meetings.

Vishal Chandan Dr. Vishal Chandan
Program Director, Gastrointestinal Pathology Fellowship
Clincal Professor, Pathology

Hematopathology Fellowship

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at the UC Irvine Medical Center offers a one-year ACGME-accredited Fellowship position in Hematopathology. The Program is designed to provide comprehensive training in diagnostic hematopathology and laboratory hematology including morphologic evaluation of peripheral blood smears, body fluids, bone marrow, lymph nodes and other tissue, performance of bone marrow procedure, interpretation of laboratory hematology, coagulation, flow cytometry, immunohistochemistry, chromosomal and molecular cytogenetics and molecular diagnostics. The fellow is trained and serves as the primary consultant for the hematology laboratory mainly in the UCI Medical Center with approximately 1,400,000 hematology and coagulation tests per year and 1,600 hematopathology cases including bone marrow, flow cytometry, lymph nodes, other tissue and referral/consultation cases. The fellow is also provided with the learning opportunities at Children's Hospital of Orange County for pediatric hematopathology and NeoGenomics laboratories for cytogenetics and conducting scholarly and research activities in the broad field of hematopathology.

Sheila Zhao Dr. Xiaohui (Sheila) Zhao
Program Director, Hematopathology Fellowship
Clinical Professor, Pathology

Neuropathology Fellowship

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at UC Irvine Medical Center offers a two-year ACGME-accredited Neuropathology Fellowship. MD/DO candidates who have completed two years of an ACGME-accredited anatomic pathology training are eligible and welcome to apply. The first year will be primarily clinical neuropathology encompassing a gamut of surgical and autopsy neuropathology cases including frozen sections, forensics, and pediatric pathology. The second year will afford junior attending opportunities as well as research time. Neuropathologists on faculty include Drs. Edwin Monuki (developmental), Ronald Kim (general, dementia, spinal cord), William Yong (general, brain tumors, biobanking), and Mari Perez-Rosendahl (general, neuromuscular). Dr. Perez-Rosendahl and Professor Tahseen Mozaffar of the Department of Neurology specialize in neuromuscular pathology. The close cooperation with the Neuromuscular Medicine team is an especial strength of the training. In addition, UC Irvine hosts an outstanding annual international neuromuscular colloquium. Cases from the UC Irvine Gavin Herbert Eye Institute, encompassing diseases of the globe, orbit, eyelids, and conjunctival membranes, will be studied under the tutelage of Dr. Maria Del Valle Estopinal, the departmental ophthalmic pathologist. Translation research interests include neuro-oncology, COVID-19, and neuromuscular pathology. Basic research strengths in our department includes close interactions with MD/PhD and PhD research colleagues within our department and includes expertise in neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration. Autopsy neuropathology training is supplemented by 2 funded programs: 1) UC Irvine Alzheimer Disease Research Center that encourages research into the pathogenesis of different types of dementia; 2) Alzheimer Biomarker Consortium – Down syndrome (ABC-DS), a signature NIA program, which is actively engaged in research into Alzheimer disease pathogenesis in Down syndrome. A unifying theme in much of our research is to apply innovative artificial intelligence approaches to digital pathology to better diagnose disease and to enable preclinical research. Please contact Dr. William Yong at yongwh@uci.edu for information or to apply.

Willliam Yong Dr. William Yong
Program Director, Neuropathology Fellowship
Clinical Professor, Pathology

Surgical Pathology Fellowship

The Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine at UC Irvine Medical Center offers a one-year in-depth SELECTIVE SURGICAL PATHOLOGY FELLOWSHIP that provides an intense and focused training to prepare our fellow for a successful surgical pathology practice in an academic or private setting. The training is designed to provide a broad exposure to all aspects of surgical pathology, including preparing complex surgical cases for sign-out, frozen section examination, consultation cases, gross room supervision, and junior attending role (second half of training). Additional time may be spent in subspecialized services including GI, GYN, breast, or GU, among others. Depending on the fellow's interest, the fellowship can be geared towards either a gynecological pathology fellowship or a Women's Health (Breast or Gynecology) fellowship. At completion, certificate can be either general surgical pathology, gynecological pathology or Women's Health pathology. The fellow will be responsible for some multi-disciplinary tumor board conferences and resident teaching, research activity is highly encouraged during the year as well. Candidates are required to have successfully graduated from an ACGME accredited AP of AP/CP residency program.

Cary Johnson

Dr. Ifegwu Ibe
Program Director, Surgical Pathology Fellowship
Assistant Clinical Professor, Pathology

 

Residents and Fellows