6th Annual Listinsky Lecture Features International Heparanese Expert

Pathology recently welcomed a world-renowned expert on heparanese Israel Vlodavsky, Ph.D., to present the sixth annual John Jay Listinsky Lecture in Glycobiology. On August 30, Vlodavsky traveled from Israel’s Technion Integrated Cancer Center, where he heads the Tumor Biology Lab, to lecture on “Heparanese: From Basic Research to Novel Therapeutics for Cancer Inflammation.” Vlodavsky is the world’s leading expert on heparanese, an enzyme that cleaves heparan sulfate, who has authored more than 400 articles mosty related to this remarkable enzyme that plays a key role in cancer progression and inflammation. He has worked for decades on heparanese cancer research with UAB Pathology Division Director Ralph Sanderson, Ph.D., Molecular & Cellular Pathology.

Sanderson’s collaboration with Dr. Vlodavsky spans almost two decades, beginning when they met in Stockholm, Sweden in the early 2000s. “I was wanting to move some of my work into the heparanase field and Israel was happy to collaborate with me by supplying some needed heparanase Dr. Ralph Sanderson, Division Director, MCP; Dr. Israel Vlodovsky; and Dr. Gene Siegal, Professor, AP

reagents,” Sanderson recalls. “That early collaboration blossomed into a longstanding collaboration and friendship that has covered multiple projects, including two grants from the NIH and two from the United States–Israel Binational Science Foundation.”

Their work together focuses on understanding the mechanisms underlying the ability of heparanase to promote tumor progression, including studies on metastasis, tumor growth and angiogenesis.

“In addition, we worked together on development and clinical testing of a novel heparanase inhibitor that has been tested successfully in human myeloma patients,” Sanderson says. “Currently our work is continuing to focus on mechanistic studies, but are now aimed at understanding how expression of heparanase by host (non-tumor) cells within the tumor microenvironment contribute to cancer progression.” Dr. Jay John Listinsky, an adjunct associate professor of pathology at UAB at the time of his untimely death in 2012, originally trained as a diagnostic radiologist but had a decades-long interest in fucosylated molecules and their overlapping physiologic properties. He collaborated with investigators in the Division of Anatomic Pathology for many years, which generated a number of novel manuscripts adding important data to the knowledge base of glycobiology.

To further this work, his friends, colleagues, and family — spearheaded by his wife and UAB pathologist, Cathy — endowed this lectureship for future generations.

Annual Brissie Lecture Features Nevada County Coroner

Held in December in the West Pavilion Conference Center, Knight spoke on “Medical Examiner/

Coroner Cooperation with Organ and Tissue Donation,” highlighting research in forensic pathology as it relates to other disciplines such as radiology, genetic testing, and sudden unexplained death in epilepsy.

Knight received her M.D. from the University of Louisville School of Medicine, and completed her residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at the Medical University of South Carolina, and her fellowship in forensic pathology at the Office of Medical Investigator at the University of New Mexico. Knight has published educational modules, book chapters,

and journal articles on forensic pathology and pediatric forensic pathology. Dr. Knight serves on the Board of Directors of the National Association of Medical Examiners and ion the editorial board of the journal Academic Forensic Pathology.

In 2018, Dr. Knight received an 2018 award from the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO) for her development of a tissue and cornea donation program at the Washoe County Regional Medical Examiner’s Office, which grants patients lifesaving tissue and corneal transplants.