Jay Hess Named Chair of Pathology
 Jay L. Hess, M.D., Ph.D. — an expert on genetic and molecular changes
that lead to cancer — was named chair of the Department of Pathology and
the Carl V. Weller Professor of Pathology in the U-M Medical School, effective
July 1.
Hess served as professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University
of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, as well as director of hematopathology for
the Penn Health System, and co-director of the hematologic malignancies program
at Philadelphia’s Abramson Cancer Center.
In 1989, Hess received his M.D. and Ph.D. in molecular biology from the Johns
Hopkins School of Medicine. After a residency in anatomic pathology at Boston’s
Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Hess completed fellowships
in hematopathology and surgical pathology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital
and Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
Before joining the University of Pennsylvania Health System in 1999, Hess was
an assistant professor of pathology at the Washington University School of Medicine
in St. Louis, Missouri. From 1993 to 1999, he was assistant attending pathologist
in surgical pathology at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and co-director
of the hematopathology training program at the Washington University School
of Medicine.
In his recent research, Hess has focused on MLL, or mixed lineage leukemia protein.
Hess and colleagues discovered that MLL, in its normal form, regulates HOX genes,
which control the development of tissues in an embryo. When altered by chromosomal
rearrangements, however, mutant MLL proteins cause HOX gene overexpression leading
to the development of acute leukemia. By understanding how this deregulation
occurs, Hess hopes to find ways to block or reverse the molecular interactions
that lead to cancer.
In addition to his research and clinical responsibilities, Hess serves on the
editorial board of the American Journal of Clinical Pathology.
—SFP
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Jay Hess Named Chair of Pathology
Alan Saltiel Elected to Institute of Medicine
G. Robert Greenberg, Early Leader in Molecular Biology, Dies at 86
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Dean’s Faculty Awards 2005
Faculty Members Honored as Inaugural Holders of New Endowed Professorships
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