The Young Investigator Challenge is an effort to identify promising young academic cytopathologists in the field. The challenge consisted of a call for papers involving original research relevant to cancer cytopathology and molecular cytopathology, and was open to faculty no more than 5 years removed from their fellowship.
Christopher Hartley, MD, a Liver & GI Pathology fellow in the Department, was chosen by the journal’s editorial advisory board and associate editors for his manuscript titled “FNA smears of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma are superior to formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue as a source of DNA: Comparison of targeted KRAS amplification and genotyping in matched preresection and postresection samples.” The article was published in the November 2017 issue of Cancer Cytopathology.
Hartley’s paper earned consistently high marks among the voting editors, who praised the study’s originality, strong design, and potential importance for cytopathologists. His achievement will be officially announced in an early 2018 issue. Additionally, he will be presented with an award, and appointed to a term on the journal’s Editorial Review Board.