Michael Laposata, MD, PhD, will be joining UTMB as Chair of the Department of Pathology and holder of the 1955 Teaching Professorship in the School of Medicine on July 1. He joins us from Vanderbilt University Medical Center where he has been the Edward and Nancy Foder Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Pathology. He is also Director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine and Clinical Laboratories and holds a faculty appointment in Microbiology and Immunology.
He received his MD and PhD degrees (program in Biochemistry, Cellular and Molecular Biology) from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and completed his postdoctoral research fellowship and residency in Clinical Pathology at Washington University in St. Louis. Laposata comes to UTMB with a highly distinguished background in academic and clinical pathology. An acknowledged national and international expert, he has authored more than 170 publications including original peer-reviewed articles, 6 books, 12 book chapters, and numerous editorials and reviews.
His well-funded research efforts over the past two decades have focused on studies of fatty acid metabolism. Most recently he has served as PI for a U47 grant entitled “Pharmacogenomic Resource for Enhanced Decisions in Clopidogrel Treatment”.
Laposata developed and implemented a clinical system where laboratory data are systematically interpreted by a physician with expertise in the area who then writes a patient-specific narrative paragraph. Here, physicians provide the same kind of interpretive insight as that provided by radiologists or anatomic pathologists. In 2005, he was recognized by the Institute of Quality in Laboratory Medicine of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for this innovation.
He is also a renowned educator, receiving 14 major teaching prizes during his tenure as a Pathology Professor at Harvard University, as Director of Clinical Laboratories at Massachusetts General Hospital, and as an Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. These awards included a teaching prize in a competition across the entire University of Pennsylvania system and the highest teaching awards voted by the graduating class at Harvard Medical School three years in a row. In 2009, he received an Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education from the American Association for Clinical Chemistry and, in 2012, he was awarded the American Society for Clinical Pathology H.P. Smith Sward for Distinguished Pathology Educator for his contributions in establishing and leading the Resident Review Course. Laposata has an excellent track record of mentoring faculty, fellows and house staff members. He has trained and mentored over 89 research students and postdoctoral research fellows who have gone on to highly successful career trajectories to become leaders in their fields.
Join us in welcoming Dr. Laposata to UTMB.