John E. Tomaszewski MD, MASCP

John Tomaszewski

John E. Tomaszewski
MD, MASCP

SUNY Distinguished Professor and Peter A. Nickerson, PhD Professor and Chair of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences

Department of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences

Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences


Specialty/Research Focus

Anatomic Pathology; Bioinformatics; Biomedical Image Analysis; Biomedical Imaging; Clinical Pathology; Digital Pathology; Immunopathology; Molecular and Cellular Biology; Renal Pathology; Surgical Pathology

Contact Information
955 Main Street, Room 4102
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
Buffalo, New York 14203
Phone: 716-829-2846
Fax: 716-829-2086
johntoma@buffalo.edu


Patient Care

This faculty member is affiliated with UBMD, practicing physicians who are also professors in the Jacobs School.

View this physician on UBMD


Professional Summary:

Patient care for a Pathologist is centered on assisting patients and clinicians in the understanding and the use of clinical laboratory data for the planning of therapeutic decisions. My personal specialty focus areas are in renal pathology, immunopathology, and urological pathology. I provide tissue biopsy and clinical laboratory diagnose , prognoses, and therapeutic advice to patients and clinicians on medical and surgical diseases of the kidney (including kidney transplants), bladder, prostate , and testis. These services include the interpretation of biopsies and pathology specimens, consultations on the ordering and/or the results of clinical laboratory lab tests.

Raised in Philadelphia, PA I received my undergraduate education from LaSalle College in Philadelphia in 1973. I attended the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and received my MD in 1977. After finishing medical school I did an internship in Internal Medicine at Pennsylvania. I completed my Pathology Residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in 1982. During that training I had special concentrations in immunology, HLA testing, and nephropathology. I was a Fellow in Surgical Pathology in 1982-1983. I joined the faculty in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1983. In my first year of appointment I was given the opportunity to do a specially arranged fellowship with Dr. Conrad Pirani in Nephropathology at Columbia University. At Penn I rose through the ranks to become Professor, Vice Chair for Anatomic Pathology-Hospital Services, and Interim Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

My research interests are translational and have been focused in the domain of genitourinary pathology. Over the last decade I have had the great opportunity to work collaboratively with a group of image scientists in the development of quantitative image analysis tools tailored to the needs of the digital pathology community. Our vision is to create a new analytic paradigm fusing the data from the quantitative analysis of high resolution images with multidimensional molecular data. This “fused diagnostics” approach will support personalized predictive modeling of disease and its response to therapy. Our collaborative group is funded and is working hard to develop platforms which will support this new way of addressing complex multivariable testing.

Over the years I have had the great good fortune to teach many classes of undergraduate medical students in nephropathology and genitourinary pathology. I have been Program Director of the Surgical Pathology and Immunopatholgy Fellowships at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and instructed 56 Fellows. I have been a member of 9 PhD and 1 MS candidates’ thesis committees. I continue to instruct at the UME, GME, and Graduate student levels.

I have been active in the work of many Pathology societies both as a speaker and in varied leadership roles. My volunteer work has been with the ACSP, USCAP, CAP, Pathology Informatics, ASIP, ICPI, and APC. I was a member of the ASCP Board of Directors for many years and rose through the leadership sequence to be elected ASCP President for 2010-2011. My society work has helped me understand both the challenges and the opportunities which face our profession in these times of great change.

In 2011 I moved from Philadelphia to Buffalo to become Chair of Pathology and Anatomical Sciences at the University at Buffalo, State University of New York. I continue to maintain an active collaborative research program in image science and focus my efforts as Chair on building our clinical, educational, and research programs at UB. I am excited to be part of this great University which is on the rise.

Education and Training:

  • Fellowship, Renal Pathology, specially arranged, Columbia University (1984)
  • Fellowship, Surgical Pathology, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (1983)
  • Residency, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania (1982)
  • Internship, Internal Medicine, Pennsylvania Hospital (1978)
  • MD, Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1977)
  • BA, LaSalle College (1973)

Employment:

  • Emeritus Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (2011-present)
  • SUNY Distinguished Professor and Peter A Nickerson PhD Professor and Chair, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences, University at Buffalo Jacobs School of Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (2011-present)
  • Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1996–2011)
  • Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1989–1996)
  • Assistant Professor, Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1983–1989)
  • Assistant Instructor, Pathology, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine (1978–1983)

Awards and Honors:

  • America's Most Honored Doctors (2024)
  • State University of New York Distinguished Academy Board (2021)
  • Gold Foundation Champion of Humanistic Care Award (2021)
  • America's Most Honored Doctors (2020)
  • 2018 Health Care Champion - Buffalo (2018)
  • SUNY Distinguished Professor (2017)
  • Dean's Award (2016)
  • Top Physicians Reginition, Buffalo Spree 2016 (2016)
  • College of American Pathologist Inspector Recognition Program (2015)
  • America's Top Doctors, Castle Connolly Listing (2015)
  • AcademicKeys Who;s Who in Sciences Higher Education Listing (2014)
  • America's Top Doctors for 10 Years: Castle Connolly Listing (2014)
  • America's Top Doctors for Cancer: Castle Connolly Listing (2014)
  • Mastership Award, American Society for Clinical Pathology (2014)
  • AOA Distinguished Lecturer (2013)
  • America's Top Doctors for Cancer:Castle Connolly Listing (2013)
  • Academic Keys Who's Who in Medicine Higher education (2012)
  • President’s Recognition Award (2011)
  • Philadelphia Magazine's "Top Doctors" Listing (2010)
  • David B.P. Goodman Award (2010)
  • Philadephia Magazine's "Top Doctors" Listing (2009)
  • America's Top Doctors for Cancer, 5th Ed (2009)
  • Academic Keys Who's Who in Medicine Higher Education (2008)
  • Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Doctors” Listing (2008)
  • Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Doctors” Listing (2007)
  • UPHS 2007 Quality and Patient Safety Award (2007)
  • Nominated by Class of 2010 for Best Lecturer in Module 2 Renal Block and Best Lecturer in Module 2 Pathology (2007)
  • America’s Top Doctors Listing, 7th ed (2007)
  • America’s Top Doctors for Cancer, 3rd ed (2007)
  • 2006 Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Doctors” Listing (2006)
  • America’s Top Doctors Listing, 6th ed (2006)
  • America’s Top Doctors for Cancer, 2nd ed (2006)
  • America’s Top Doctors Listing, 5th ed (2005)
  • Philadelphia Magazine’s “Top Doctors” Listing (2005)
  • America’s Top Doctors for Cancer, 1st ed (2005)
  • America’s Top Doctors Listing, 4th ed (2004)
  • 2004 CDC Public Health Practice Program Office (PHPPO) Award (2004)

Research Centers:

  • Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC)

UB 2020 Strategic Strengths:

  • Health and Wellness Across the Lifespan
  • Molecular Recognition in Biological Systems and Bioinformatics

Grants and Sponsored Research:

  • September 2023–July 2028
    Computational Image Analysis of Renal Transplant Biopsies to Predict Graft Outcome”.
    NIH
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $285,930
  • October 2023–June 2025
    Evaluation of a tissue compressive device for the enhanced retrieval of lymph nodes from fatty specimens
    UB Center for Advanced Technology in Big Data & Health Sciences (UB CAT)
    Role: Principal Investigator
    $27,391
  • July 2016–June 2021
    Computerized histologic image predictor of cancer outcome
    NIH/Case
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $232,187
  • July 2015–June 2020
    Pathology Image Informatics Platform for visualization, analysis and management
    NIH/Case
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $101,849
  • September 2009–December 2013
    Software to allow for multimode, multiscale fused data for pathology and radiology
    NIH
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $497,000
  • November 2009–November 2012
    Histology based computer assisted diagnostics (HistoCAD) for automated Gleason grading of prostate cancer
    Bioimagene
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $333,589
  • July 2007–June 2012
    Inherited Genetic Variation and Predisposition to Testicular Germ Cell Tumor
    NIH
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $500,000
  • October 2008–September 2011
    Comprehensive Islet Transplantation Program
    Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $484,591
  • July 2009–May 2011
    Genotype and phenotype predictors of therapy response in renal cell carcinoma
    NIH
    Role: Co-Investigator
    $365,345
  • April 2003–March 2008
    Infarct modification to limit remodeling after MI
    NIH
    Role: Co-Investigator
See all (14 more)

Patents:

  • “Cancer Detection from Whole Mount Histology Specimens,” (2008)
  • "Computer Assisted Diagnosis (CAD) of cancer using Multi-Functional Multi-M (1969)
  • "System and Method for Image Registration"
  • "Systems and Methods for Automated Detection of Cancer",
  • “Malignancy Diagnosis Using Content-Based Image Retrieval of Tissue Histo

Journal Articles:

See all (327 more)

Books and Book Chapters:

  • Hard R., Hipp J., Tangrea M.A. and Tomaszewski J.E. (2021) Applications of Image Science in Pathology and Cell Biology. In: Pathobiology of Human Disease: Linda M. McManus, Richard N. Mitchell, editors. Elsevier, San Diego, 3723-3759.
  • Tomaszewski JE. (2020) Overview of the Role of AI in Pathology: The Computer as Pathology Assistant. In: Artificial Intelligence and Deep Learning in Pathology. S. Elsevier, 237-260.
  • Tomaszewski JE. (2017) Regulatory Compliance. In: Quality Management in Anatomic Pathology., Zhai Q and Siegal GP eds. CAP Press
  • Weiss M, Liapis H, Tomaszewski JE, Arend LJ. (2014) Pyelonephritis and other infections, refux nephropathy, hydronephrosis, and nephrolithiasis. In: Heptinstall’s Pathology of the Kidney 7th ed; edited by J. Charles Jennette, Vivette D. D’Agati, Jean Olson, and Fred Silva. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins,
  • Tomaszewski J.E., Hipp J., Tangrea M. and Madabhushi A. (2014) Digital Imaging Fundamentals. In: Pathobiology of Human Disease: Linda M. McManus, Richard N. Mitchell, editors. San Diego: Elsevier, 3711-3722.
  • Tomaszewski J.E., Hipp J. and Tangrea M.A. (2014) Digital Imaging Fundamentals. In: Pathobiology of Human Disease. Elsevier, 3702-3710.
  • Weiss M, Liapis H, Tomaszewski JE, Arend LJ. (2007) In: Pyelonephritis and other infections, refux nephropathy, hyronephrosis, and nephrolithiasis.
  • Tomaszewski JE, LiVolsi VA. (2005) In: Defining and handling errors in surgical pathology.
  • Tomaszewski JE, LiVolsi VA. (2002) In: Defining and handling errors in surgical pathology.
  • LiVolsi VA, Tomaszewski JE. (1999) In: Pathology and Cytology.
See all (16 more)

Abstracts:

  • Doyle ST, Feldman MD, Tomaszewski JE, Shih N, Madabhushi A. (2011) Cascaded multi-class pairwise classifier (CascaMPa) for normal, cancerous, and cancer confounder classes in prostate histology. 2011 IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI), (Apr)
  • Doyle ST, Monaco J, Madabhushi A, Lindholm S, Ljung P, Ladic L, Tomaszewski JE, Feldman M. (2010) Evaluation of effects of JPEG2000 compression on a computer-aided detection system for prostate cancer on digitized histopathology. 2010 7th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI): From Nano to Macro, (Jan)
  • Lee G, Doyle ST, Monaco J, Master SR, Feldman MD, Tomaszewski JE, Madabhushi A. (2009) A Knowledge Representation Framework for Integration, Classification of Multi-Scale Imaging and Non-Imaging Data: Preliminary Results in Predicting Prostate Cancer Recurrence by Fusing Mass Spectrometry and Histology. 2009 6th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI): From Nano to Macro, (Jan)
  • Naik S, Doyle ST, Agner S, Madabhushi A, Feldman MD, Tomaszewski JE. (2008) Automated gland and nuclei segmentation for grading of prostate and breast cancer histopathology. 2008 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI): From Nano to Macro, (Jan)
  • Doyle ST, Agner S, Madabhushi A, Feldman MD, Tomaszewski JE. (2008) Automated grading of breast cancer histopathology using spectral clustering with textural and architectural image features. 2008 5th IEEE International Symposium on Biomedical Imaging (ISBI): From Nano to Macro, (Jan)
  • Doyle ST, Madabhushi A, Feldman MD, Tomaszewski JE. (2006) A boosting cascade for automated detection of prostate cancer from digitized histology. MICCAI, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, (Jan)

Professional Memberships:

  • AMIA, a society for informatics professionals; member, 2013-present (2013–2025)
  • SPIE; a medical imaging society, member 2013-present Program organizing committee, 2013-present (2013–2025)
  • National Kidney Foundation; WNY Chapter, Board of Directors, 2013-present (2013–2025)
  • Clinton Global Initiative (2011–2025)
  • Intersociety Council for Pathology Information; Board of Directors, 2011-2020 Secretary-Treasurer, 2013-2o14 Vice Chair 2015-2018 Chair 2019-2020 (2011–2020)
  • American Society for Investigative Pathology; member, 2010 Program committee member, 2010-present (2010–2025)
  • Renal Pathology Society; 2002-present (2002–2025)
  • Centers for Disease Control Quality Institute; ASCP representative, 2002-2003 (2002–2003)
  • College of American Pathologists; CAP Lab Inspector (1998–2025)
  • International Society for Analytical & Molecular Morphology; Member, 1998 (1998)
See all (14 more)

Presentations:

  • "Multi-Scale Spatial Biology: A New Horizon in 21st Century Medicine" 16th International Conference on Frontiers of Polymers and Advanced Materials (2024)
  • "Multiscale Modeling Using AI and ML in Medicine: Education, Risk, Safety, Quality" International Conference on Functional Nanomaterials and their Applications in Sustainability, Environment, Energy, and Biotechnology (2024)
  • "AI: Education, Risk, Safety, Quality" International Summer School of Renal Pathology and Precision Medicine, (2024)
  • "SAP Innovation Session on Precision Cancer Care Guided Digital Pathology, AI and NGS" SAP Innovations Days Life Science and Healthcare (2024)
  • "Digital and Computational Pathology Conference," SPIE Medical Imaging (2024)
  • "Computational Pathology in 21st Century Diagnostics" American College of Veterinary Pathologists Annual Meeting (2021)
  • "Computational Pathology in 21st Century Diagnostics" Hershey Medical Center, Penn State University, Webinar Series (2021)
  • "The Digital Assistant in 21st Century Diagnostics" Association of Pathology Informatics, Virtual Delivery (2021)
  • "Digital Analytics Comes of Age" Deep Learning and AI in Pathology” sponsored by American Society of Investigative Pathology (2021)
  • "The Role of the Nephropathologist in Clinical Trials" Renal Pathology Society (2020)
See all (184 more)

Service Activities:

  • ; Elected member FPMP Governing Board (2024–2025)
  • In response to “Predoctoral to Postdoctoral Fellow Transition Award”; NCI F99/K00 Review Panel (2024)
  • Lead teams of clinical laboratorians in peer to peer inspection of hospitals labs leading to CMS deemed lab accreditation; CAP lab inspector (2024–2025)
  • This board is composed of elected SUNY distinguished professors. It organizes and advises on the contributions of this professorial rank to SUNY. I was a UB representative on this board; SUNY Distinguished Professor Board of Directors (2022–2024)
  • ; Buffalo Museum of Sciences, Scientific Advisory Board (2022–2025)
  • American Journal of Pathology; Editorial board member (2020–2025)
  • ; Co-Chair SPIE Medical Imaging Digital and Computational Pathology Conference (2017–2025)
  • Journal of Medical Imaging; Editorial Board member (2015–2025)
  • UBMD Finance Committee; Chair (2013–2024)
  • UBMD Operations Committee (2013–2022)
  • Member Search Committees for UB Chairs of Surgery and Family Medicine (2013–2014)
  • UBA Board of Directors (2012–2014)
  • Committee on promotions to Unqualified (tenurial) Ranks (2012–2013)
  • Search Committee for UB Founding Chair of Biomedical Informatics; Chair (2012–2013)
  • ; Departmental Chair (2011–2025)
  • ; Member JSMBS Clinical Chair Council (2011–2025)
  • ; Member JSMBS Executive Council (2011–2025)
  • ; Member of JSMBS Basic Science Chair Council (2011–2025)
  • ; President University at Buffalo Pathologists (2011–2025)
  • Executive Committee, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences; Chair (2011–2025)
  • Faculty Council, Pathology and Anatomical Sciences; Ex officio member (2011–2025)
  • UBMD Management Council; Member (2011–2022)
  • Journal of Pathology Informatics; Editorial Board member (2010–2025)

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Contact Information

955 Main Street, Room 4102
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Pathology and Anatomical Sciences
Buffalo, New York 14203
Phone: 716-829-2846
Fax: 716-829-2086
johntoma@buffalo.edu

This faculty member is affiliated with UBMD, practicing physicians who are also professors in the Jacobs School.

View this physician on UBMD