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For a fungus, there is no place like Alabama. Worldwide, fungal diseases kill more than 1.5 million people each year, and the number is rising. Alabama’s climate and population, and UAB’s reputation, mean that patients here benefit from the expertise of specialists such as Pappas and Sixto Leal Jr., M.D., Ph.D., director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine in the Department of Pathology, whose hospital labs can track the spread of fungal infections like nothing else in the region. That gives Alabama an advantage as new fungi are on the march around the world. Read the full story here.

Sixto Leal, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Laboratory Medicine, UAB Pathology, has been awarded a 4-year, $2.97 million R01 grant from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to study secondary mold infections in patients with severe viral infections, such as COVID. These mold infections, if not recognized or treated, can be fatal. The grant, titled, “The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Immune Dysregulation on Antifungal Immunity,” runs through July 2027.

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Sixto Leal, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Laboratory Medicine, Director, clinical microbiology and Fungal Reference Lab and the SEBLAB biocontainment laboratory, is featured on the cover of the June 2023 issue of CAP Today, the monthly publication of the College of American Pathologists (CAP). CAP is the leading organization of board-certified pathologists, serving patients, pathologists, and the public by fostering and advocating excellence in the practice of pathology and laboratory medicine worldwide. 

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Sixto Leal, M.D., Ph.D., Assistant Professor and Associate Director, Division of Laboratory Medicine, was recently awarded an American Lung Association COVID-19 Respiratory Virus Research Award for his project, “The Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Immune Dysregulation on Antifungal Immunity.” This is a two-year, $200,000 award.

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Sixto M. Leal Jr., M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pathology and director of Clinical Microbiology at UAB Hospitals and the UAB Fungal Reference Laboratory, has been appointed as the inaugural scientific director for UAB’s Southeastern Biosafety Laboratory Alabama Birmingham, or SEBLAB. Leal’s appointment will begin April 1, 2022, and he will retain his other roles at UAB.

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Starting Saturday, health insurance companies will cover the cost of at-home COVID-19 tests. Dr. Sixto Leal, Director of Clinical Microbiology at UAB, said these tests are accurate detectors of the virus when they’re taken correctly and at the right time.

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The past year has been one of the most challenging years medical professionals have ever navigated. This is especially true for pathologists and laboratory medicine professionals who answered the need for better, faster, and more prevalent testing amidst a sea of uncertainties. The Pathologist’s 2021 Power List is an annual celebration of the great and inspirational minds that underpin the medical laboratory and honors select individuals in six different categories. 

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Sixto M. Leal, Jr., M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Laboratory Medicine, UAB Department of Pathology, is awarded the 2021 Dean’s Excellence Award for Service as junior faculty.

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All of the COVID variants identified worldwide — including the more contagious U.K. B.1.1.7 variant, South African B.1.351 variant and the Brazilian P.1 variant — have been discovered in UAB’s Department of Pathology Fungal Reference Lab. The lab, directed by Sixto M. Leal Jr., M.D., Ph.D., has been analyzing 100 samples a week for the Alabama Department of Public Health to help identify which variants are here in Alabama.

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There are currently eight labs in Alabama, including the Fungal Reference Lab at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), decoding COVID-19 DNA. The process is called viral genome sequencing.

“Primary samples are coming from patients in the hospital that test positive for COVID PCR or by COVID antigen tests. And so, a subset of these samples, not every single one, but a subset are being subjected to this novel method called viral genome sequencing,” explained Dr. Sixto Leal, Jr., MD, PhD, Department of Pathology, UAB.

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