The UAB Department of Pathology recently funded travel awards to four trainees, Dr. Ashleigh Riegler, Courtney Swain, Ezgi Sari and Resha Rajkarnikar, who will present their research at national meetings this year.

Ashleigh Riegler, Ph.D., a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Sixto M. Leal Jr. M.D., Ph.D., Jay M. McDonald Endowed Professor in Experimental Pathology, Division Director, Laboratory Medicine, will present at the American Society for Microbiology “Microbe 2025” conference in Los Angeles, California. Riegler will be presenting the poster “Evaluating the relative performance of peripheral blood mononuclear cell isolation kits and cell counting methods for T-Spot TB assay sample preparation,” which focuses on diagnosing active tuberculosis with the T-Spot assay, measuring T cell reactivity to TB antigens after optimized techniques for isolation, viability and counting.

Riegler will also be presenting the poster, “Examining the impact of pH during antifungal susceptibility testing on vulvovaginal candidiasis isolate resistance and susceptibility interpretations,” discussing whether the pH of antifungal susceptibility testing (AST) affects resistance interpretation and vulvovaginal candidiasis clinical outcomes.

Courtney Swain, an M.D./Ph.D. graduate trainee in the laboratory of Lalita Shevde-Samant, Ph.D., Professor, Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology, Associate Director for Education and Training, O'Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center, will be attending the Annual American Association for Immunologists’ (AAI) Annual Meeting, IMMUNOLOGY2025, in Honolulu, Hawaii. Swain will present a poster titled, “Impeding Hedgehog activity in regulatory T cells promotes an inflammatory Th17-like phenotype in triple-negative breast cancer,” highlighting her Ph.D. work focusing on unraveling the role of Hedgehog signaling in modulating T cell immunity in breast cancer.

“I am very grateful of the financial support by the Department of Pathology. Given that this is my first AAI meeting, I’m excited to have this wonderful opportunity to network and present my work alongside other like-minded scientists and physician-scientists in both the general and cancer immunology communities!”

Ezgi Sari, MSc. M. Ed., a graduate research assistant in the laboratory of Camilla Margaroli Bell, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Division of Molecular & Cellular Pathology, will present at the invitation-only 67^th Annual Thomas L. Petty Aspen Lung Conference, Exploring the Void: Advances in Parenchymal Destruction in Emphysema, in Aspen, Colorado. Sari will present her findings on emphysema, which is the focus of her Ph.D. studies. Sari and Bell found that macrophages derived MMP-12 EVs are increased with smoking, and their pathogenicity in emphysema relies on cross-activation and acquired anti-protease resistance mediated by NE. According to Sari, “These results will bring a new perspective on smoking-related COPD and provide new insight into therapeutic developments.”

Resha Rajkarnikar, a graduate student and Ph.D. candidate in the Division of Genomic Diagnostics and Bioinformatics, and researcher in the laboratory of Mythreye Karthikeyan, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Molecular & Cellular Pathology, will present at the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology conference in Chicago, Illinois. Rajkarnikar will present her investigation on an understudied atypical kinase, MAPK15, which emerged from the Karthikeyan lab’s unbiased screen for potential regulators of anchorage-independent survival in ovarian cancer.  

“I am excited to share my findings at the upcoming ASBMB conference. I would like to thank the Department of Pathology for providing the travel award to attend this conference and the opportunity to present at the recent UAB Pathology Grand Rounds as part of the trainee series.”

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Required application materials:

1. A copy of the submitted abstracted, oral or poster presentation, and copy of email confirmation of submission and acceptance.
2. A short paragraph outlining what scientific meeting will be attended and how attending this meeting contributes to training.
3. Brief biosketch/CV of applicant, including years in program, research lab and qualifying exam status (student) or years in lab (postdoc).
4. A letter of support from PI/mentor.

Application submission:

Email all required materials as a single pdf file identified by the applicant’s name (i.e., LASTNAME_FIRSTNAME) using: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

For more information on eligibility, requirements, review criteria, and subsequent deadlines contact Fatima Igdoura at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or Shannon Bailey, Ph.D., Vice Chair for Faculty Affairs, at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..