Media Coverage

Technology.org reported on how UB researchers are using the power of digital pathology and computational modeling to develop a new approach to detecting and quantifying podocytes (a specialize type of kidney cell). Pinaki Sarder, associate professor of pathology and anatomical sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, spoke about how the project is an example of how advanced computational capabilities are allowing scientists to glean new information from complex images an anatomical structures. “In the medical domain, understanding human systems depends on analyzing huge amounts of very different types of date,” said Sarder “The question is, how do we combine all these data to try and understand fundamental human systems and disease?”

Niagara Frontier Publications and Technology.org published the announcement about a UB team has developed a new model of how information in the genome is organized, called the novel genome archipelago model (GAM). The model provides new insights into how a multitude of interactions among genes may affect normal development as well as mutations that lead to cancer and other diseases. “GAM offers a physical basis for the idea of systems genomics, which has begun to emerge in recent years, in which individual genome elements are integrated into an ‘organism-like’ entity,” said Michal K. Stachowiak, professor in the department of pathology and anatomical sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

In a story on how supply chain difficulties impacted COVID-19 testing, WBFO interviewed John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences, who said because of that, Kaleida Health Laboratories are using a test he and colleagues designed and built here. “We’ve actually pulled pieces and parts together of the system and we validated that and sent it all to the state. The state said, ‘That's good.’” Tomaszewski is chief of service at Kaleida Health Laboratories.

A story on preventing dementia uses a photograph showing a section of a human brain with Alzheimer’s disease. The brain section was on display at the Brain Museum at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

UB researchers are helping lead a study that examines if the presence of COVID-19 antibodies means that individuals can have immunity to the virus. “What we want to know is not just about the viral particles and the antibody response, but we want to know that over time,” said John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences. “We want to know the curves that people are on and where they’re at and where they are going.”

New York is requiring that regions have a capacity to conduct 30 tests for every thousand residents per month as one of the conditions to begin reopening. To this point there have been a limited amount of tests, so regions had been concentrating on testing people most at risk. “Now it’s time to be testing much more widely in the community so that we have a much better understanding of what’s going on,” says Peter Winkelstein, MD, executive director of the Institute for Healthcare Informatics and clinical professor of pediatrics. John E. Tomaszewski, MD — SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences — says access to test kits is increasing.

The Buffalo News reports that Western New York will remain in limbo without more COVID-19 testing. The article quotes Thomas A. Russo, MD, professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, and John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences. “There are so many people that haven’t been infected yet that it’s a bit like catching fish in a barrel for this virus,” Russo said. “If we’re going to start to relax our public health measures, we need to have broad testing available to identify people if they get infected, so we can do the proper quarantines.” Testing and treatment will help tailor a blueprint for moving safely into the next stages of life. “What happens in Buffalo may or may not be the same as what happened in New York City or Beijing,” said Tomaszewski, chief of service at Kaleida Health Laboratories. “These are different populations.”

Researchers at UB, led by John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences, are developing coronavirus antibody tests. “I’ll tell you it’s been quite a ride for the last 6 weeks. So I’ve been doing pathology lab testing and medicine for the last 40 years. I’m a senior person here, and I’ve never been as challenged in practice and development,” Tomaszewski said.

A story on the technologies that could ease the novel coronavirus testing logjam in the U.S. notes that John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences in the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, has said that with equipment donated from UB, the hospital system has been able to increase daily testing from 90 a day to 300, though ideally, he says he would like to be doing 1,000 tests per day. “We’re nowhere near the amount of testing you’d want to do in our region,” said Tomaszewski, who is also chief of service at Kaleida Health Laboratories.

Amid a shortage of COVID-19 test kits in Buffalo, researchers with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences have stepped in to help. John E. Tomaszewski, MD, is one of several researchers who is manufacturing viral transport media tubes. “We actually literally assembled kits. We get the swabs in, we put them together with the viral transport media and we distribute them out to our patient care areas,” says Tomaszewski, SUNY Distinguished Professor and the Peter A. Nickerson, PhD, Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences.

John E. Tomaszewski, MD, SUNY Distinguished Professor and Peter A. Nickerson Professor and Chair of pathology and anatomical sciences, and Norma J. Nowak, PhD, professor of biochemistry, are helping Kaleida Health increase and speed up COVID-19 testing in Erie County. They identified two pieces of equipment in the UB Biorepository that they felt could be deployed to Kaleida Health Laboratories on Flint Road in Amherst to assist with the processing of COVID-19 test kits. “This is the university responding to a health care crisis as a true partner,” Tomaszewski said.

A report on how Europe’s huge cave bears may have become extinct because of their inability to chew meat due to their evolved large sinuses quotes Jack Tseng, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences. “Mechanically speaking, being 'thickheaded' may not be a bad thing because more bone means more structural strength,” Tseng said. “However, our findings support the interpretation that requirements for sinus system function in cave bears necessitated a trade-off between sinus development and skull strength.”

A report on how Europe’s huge cave bears may have become extinct because of their inability to chew meat due to their evolved large sinuses quotes Jack Tseng, PhD, assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences. “Mechanically speaking, being 'thickheaded' may not be a bad thing because more bone means more structural strength,” Tseng said. “However, our findings support the interpretation that requirements for sinus system function in cave bears necessitated a trade-off between sinus development and skull strength.”

Clinical laboratories in Buffalo racing to find new ways of testing for the novel coronavirus are facing a shortage of supplies, especially nasal swabs, transport tubes and reagents. “Like there’s a run on toilet paper, there’s a run on all these things,” said John E. Tomaszewski, MD, professor and chair of pathology and anatomical sciences. “We really need access to reagents. That’s the A No. 1 thing.”

Neurovascular Diagnostics co-founders include entrepreneur Jeff Harvey; Hui Meng, PhD, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, who holds appointments in the departments of Biomedical Engineering and Neurosurgery; Vincent M. Tutino, PhD, research assistant professor of pathology and anatomical sciences; and Kenneth V. Snyder, MD, PhD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, radiology and neurology. The company has evolved from a promising lab project to a business with big potential. Neurovascular Diagnostics is a UB spinoff company that is developing a low-cost blood test to screen high-risk patients for unruptured brain aneurysms.