Sixto M. Leal Jr. M.D., Ph.D., Medical Director
Sixto M. Leal Jr. MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Pathology with a broad background in microbiology, immunology, and medicine with residency training in clinical pathology and fellowship training in medical microbiology. He is the Division Director of Laboratory Medicine and Medical Director of the UAB CLIA and CAP-accredited Clinical Microbiology Lab and Fungal Reference Lab. He has served on the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Antifungal Susceptibility committee, Fungal Diagnostics Laboratory Consortium (FDLC), American Board of Pathology Medical Microbiology Committee, and College of American Pathologists Microbiology Committee. As the Director of the UAB BSL-3 Research Regional Biocontainment Lab (RBL), he is currently leading the implementation of cutting-edge scientific equipment and a scientific research team to support in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo research on high containment pathogens, including BSL-3 fungi. As a physician-scientist, he serves as the PI on several NIH, private foundation, and industry awards/contracts focused on developing and evaluating novel infectious disease diagnostics/therapeutics and mechanistic studies of fungal pathogenesis and immunology.
Peter Pappas, M.D., Clinical Consultant; ID Physician
Peter G. Pappas, M.D., is the William E. Dismukes Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases, and was the first Tinsley Harrison Clinical Scholar, Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama in Birmingham. Dr. Pappas attended medical school at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, graduating in 1978. He completed his residency in internal medicine, chief medical residency and infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Washington in Seattle. Following completion of his fellowship, he was on the clinical faculty at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill, NC, through its affiliated hospital in Wilmington, North Carolina. In 1988, he joined the faculty at the University of Alabama in Birmingham School of Medicine, with a focus on HIV and transplant-associated opportunistic infections, especially the invasive mycoses. His main areas of interest have included the development of new therapies for fungal infections and understanding the epidemiology of candidiasis, the endemic mycoses, and cryptococcosis. He has performed numerous clinical trials in candidiasis, cryptococcosis, aspergillosis, sporotrichosis, blastomycosis, and histoplasmosis through his involvement with the NIAID BAMSG. He is the Principal Investigator for the Mycoses Study Group Education and Research Consortium, an academic consortium that continues to perform multicenter trials, create treatment guidelines for invasive mycoses, and coordinate CME training in the epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of invasive mycoses. As Director of the MSG, Dr Pappas has been instrumental in moving the organization towards its current NPO status. He also served as PI of a national network of transplant centers, TRANSNET, in conjunction with CDC and a consortium of industry co-sponsors to provide important epidemiologic and treatment information to transplant recipients who develop proven and probable invasive fungal infections. More recently, he served as co-PI of the Organ Transplant Infection Detection and Prevention Program (OTIP), and collaborative multicenter group funded by CDC.
Todd McCarty, M.D., Clinical Consultant; ID Physician
Todd P. McCarty, M.D., completed medical school, internal medicine residency training, and infectious diseases fellowship training at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He is board certified in both internal medicine and infectious diseases. He is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases with practice privileges at UAB Hospitals and the Birmingham Veterans Affairs Medical Center. In addition to serving as the ACGME fellowship program director for infectious diseases at UAB, he is also a member of the UAB antimicrobial stewardship committee and co-director of antimicrobial stewardship at the Birmingham VA Medical Center. His interests span from medical education to clinical care of immunocompromised patients along with clinical trials and clinical research focused on transplant infectious diseases, fungal infections, and antimicrobial stewardship.
Stephen A. Moser, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus; Inaugural FRL Director
Steve Moser, Ph.D., is a Professor Emeritus in the Division of Laboratory Medicine within the Department of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio State University and completed medical microbiology fellowship training at Washington University in St. Louis. At UAB, he established the UAB Fungal Reference Laboratory in 1995 and served as its Medical Director for more than 20 years. During this time, he also served as the Director of the UAB Hospitals Clinical Microbiology Laboratory prior to his official retirement in December 2018.
Deunta Binion, B.S., Clinical Laboratory Scientist
Deunta Binion graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Genetics from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2023. He subsequently joined the UAB Fungal Reference Lab to gain experience in clinical diagnostic testing and clinical/translational research. He worked closely with Levi Schaefers to learn yeast and mold susceptibility testing and currently serves as the FRL’s clinical and translational research susceptibility testing expert. In his free time, he enjoys eating large quantities of unhealthy food yet somehow through a combination of genetics and working out he wins 100% of all local and regional body-building contests.
Kamaljeet Kaur, Ph.D., Clinical Laboratory Scientist; Lead Tech
Kamaljeet Kaur (Kamal) joined the Fungal Reference Laboratory in 2023, where her primary duties are performing clinical diagnostic testing and result interpretation, along with diagnostics and quality control testing. She obtained her undergraduate Bachelor of Technology (Biotechnology) degree from India before pursuing a Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina and later a postdoctoral fellowship at UAB. She enjoys getting to know people and her hobbies include vocal music, arts and handicrafts. She enjoys being with her family the most and loves sharing her interests with her daughter.
Jacobi McGrew B.S., Clinical Laboratory Scientist
Jacobi joined the Fungal Reference Lab team in 2024. He completed his BS in Neuroscience at UAB in 2020 and subsequently joined Virginia Tech’s Post-Baccalaureate Research and Education Program (PREP) where he gained additional medical and research experience. He is the lab’s expert on T-cell functional assays. This includes the FRL’s major focus on T.Spot TB testing for patient care and employee health. His favorite hobbies include writing stories for comics, playing video games, creating strategy guides to help other players, and learning other languages such as Spanish, ASL, and Python.
Derek Moates, M.S., Lab Manager; Research Scientist
Derek completed his BS in Biology and Cytotechnology at the University of Auburn at Montgomery in 2005, a MS in Biotechnology (2010) and a MS in Biology (2015) from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He joined the Fungal Reference Lab in July 2020 to help with the State of AL Guide Safe Student COVID Testing Initiative and then stayed on to help run and manage the lab. He has worked in both clinical and industry lab settings and is a Board-Certified Cytotechnologist. Derek manages the clinical lab and serves as principal investigator on commercial research studies. In his free time, he enjoys spending time with his husband working in their yard, playing with their dogs and chickens, hiking, and exploring new places.
Ashleigh Riegler, Ph.D., Clinical Microbiology Post-Doctoral Fellow; Scientist
Ashleigh has been a postdoctoral fellow with Dr. Leal since 2021. Her research focuses on understanding the contribution of programmed cell death in the pathology of infection. She is especially interested in utilizing histology of human tissues to evaluate cell death mechanisms. Ashleigh grew up in the upper peninsula of Michigan (a true Yooper), obtained her Bachelor’s degree in Biology from The University of Wisconsin Superior (awarded 2016), and then made her way to The University of Alabama at Birmingham to complete her PhD in Microbiology (awarded 2021). Ashleigh’s career focus is on clinical microbiology, which led her to the mentorship of Dr. Leal. An aficionado of arts and crafts, Ashleigh can often be found creating in some way in and outside of the lab. When she is not in the lab, Ashleigh enjoys what she calls “random adventures in nature”, reading fiction, and watching movies with her partner and cats.
Sabiqun (Shanta) Nahar, Ph.D., Clinical Laboratory Scientist
Sabiqun Nahar (Shanta) obtained her PhD in Molecular Cell Biology from Kumamoto University, Japan, and joined the Fungal Reference Lab in 2024. She loves working in the clinical diagnostic field and generating and interpreting high-quality data with immediate impacts on patient care. She also loves driving clinical and translational research studies focused on the development and optimization of diagnostic tests, evaluation of novel antimicrobials, and the generation of new knowledge of infectious diseases. In her free time, Shanta enjoys spending time with her family, especially her son, and traveling.
