Breast Pathology and Cancer Diagnosis

Dr. Shahla Masood is a Persian born physician, who currently holds the positions of Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology at University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville and Chief of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UF Health Jacksonville. She is also the Director of the Cytopathology and Breast Pathology Fellowship Training Program. In addition, Dr. Masood is the Medical Director of UF Health Breast Center. An internationally recognized expert in breast cancer diagnosis and prognosis, Dr. Masood has fostered the concept of an integrated multidisciplinary approach in breast cancer care, research, and education. She is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Breast Journal, the founder and past president of the “International Society of Breast Pathology,” the Director of the “Annual Multidisciplinary Symposium on Breast Disease”, and “The Breast Cancer Public Forum”.

Pathology

Dr. Octavian Bucur, MD, PhD, is an Associate Investigator at the Viron Molecular Medicine Institute in Boston, MA, USA and Editor in Chief of the journal Discoveries. He has over a decade of training and research experience at the Harvard Medical School: Postdoctoral Fellow at BIDMC and Harvard Medical School, Instructor in Pathology (Faculty), Harvard Medical School (2017-2018); Associate Member, Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard (2014-2015), Associate Member of the Ludwig Cancer Center at Harvard University, Boston, MA (2016-2018), affiliated with Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Boston, MA (2016-2018). Dr. Octavian Bucur has made impactful contributions in several research fields, being one of the main developers of Expansion Pathology (Nature Biotechnology 2017 (in the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric), Nature Protocols 2020; 3 patents). This method extends the current resolution limit (250 nm) of the optical microscopes to 70 nm, enabling visualization of smaller nanoscopic structures with inexpensive optical microscopy in preserved tissue specimens, after physical tissue expansion. Expansion-related technologies have tremendous implications in several biomedical fields, including diagnostic pathology, neuroscience and molecular medicine. Among the honors and awards received over the years are: Recognition of Outstanding Achievement in Translational and Basic Science Research from the Harvard Medical School Pathology Department; ranked 1st out of >100 - Best Scientific Poster Award (2017, Harvard Medical School Pathology Retreat of MGH, BIDMC, BWH, DFCI, Children’s Hospital Boston); The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)-Millennium Pharmaceuticals Award (2015, Philadelphia, PA), IUBMB Travel Fellowship (2010, Melbourne, Australia), The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)-Aflac Award (2008, San Diego, CA); Lady Tata Memorial Trust International Award for Leukemia Research (2007, London, UK); European Union - Leonardo da Vinci Research Award (2004, Magdeburg, Germany); Invited Keynote Speaker/Special Lectures (conferences in San Francisco, Chicago, London (UK), Bucharest (Romania), BIDMC, Harvard Medical School - Boston, Wayne State University - Detroit, Carol Davila University, Romania); Chair of the Scientific Selection Committee for the RALI's Grand Rounds competition, Research Assistant Learning Initiative, Boston (2017-2018); Invited Judge for many undergraduate/graduate research competitions; International grant evaluator. Dr. Octavian Bucur is a Co-Founder, major stakeholder and was the first CEO of Viron Therapeutics, Boston, MA and QPathology, Boston, MA. He is also leading a prolific research group at the Victor Babes National Institute of Pathology in Bucharest, selecting and training some of the most promising students and young researchers from Romania (nextgenpathology.eu).

Molecular and Cellular Biology, Computational Pathology, Cancer Research