PATH News Network Daily Edition
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PATH News Network Daily Edition
An Ebola Strain's Unique Challenges
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July 29, 2026
Germline CDK12 Variants in Aggressive Prostate Cancer
‘Good Design Takes Mastery’: Scientific Illustrators Sketch Out A-I’s Future
Why the Ebola strain ravaging Central Africa is so hard to combat. We hear from a CAP expert working with teams on the ground. Plus, CAP26 takes a deep dive into job burnout and how you can find balance. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. It's Wednesday, July 29th. The Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda shows no signs of abating, with at least 3,000 confirmed cases and more than 1,400 deaths in Congo alone. Early this week, Oxford University announced it had developed an experimental vaccine and has begun a trial.
Dr. David SchwartzSo they've got some vaccines and some antibodies out there that they're they've just begun testing. But this this epidemic, this outbreak is only, you know, very recent. And so we won't know anything yet.
Elizabeth McMahonDr. Schwartz, a CAP member who is working with teams in Africa, says that genomic sequencing and other advanced molecular technologies have transformed Ebola investigations in recent years. But unique circumstances on the ground, including a highly mobile population, make monitoring the outbreak challenging. Learn more about Ebola diagnostics, surveillance, and preparedness in an interview with Dr. Schwartz in the Pathologist magazine. Researchers have identified an inherited gene variant that can increase a man's risk of developing early, aggressive prostate cancer. The findings reported this month in the journal Cancer Discovery come from a study of more than 4,500 prostate cancer patients by researchers at the University of Washington and the University of British Columbia. They focused on an inherited gene called CDK-12, which helps to repair DNA damage. Cells carry two copies of the gene, but if just one copy is normal, the cell can still make its repairs. Researchers found, however, that normal copies had mutated in the cancer cells of five men who also had close family members with cancer. The researchers concluded that CDK-12 testing should be included in hereditary cancer risk panels. It's a discouraging fact in the field. About half of pathologists and laboratory medicine professionals say they've experienced burnout. Most common in residency and the first few years of practice, burnout is associated with increased medical errors, heightened liability, and workforce attrition. But few people want to talk about it. CAP member Dr. Michael Cohen is one person who does. He'll be co-leading sessions at CAP 26 in October on what drives burnout, its risks, and interventions. Dr. Cohen, who is Professor Emeritus at Wake Forest University and the University of Iowa, says changing demographics are an underlying driver of burnout.
Dr. Michael CohenAnd they have a dwindling workforce. So I think there are all these forces at play which make it very difficult to get the work done and for many people to avoid burnout.
Elizabeth McMahonDr. Marisa Saint Martin, a partner with Dr. Cohen on CAP Wellness Initiatives and Director of Transfusion Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital, says the CAP26 sessions will include strategies you can take home.
Dr. Marisa Saint MartinWe want to talk about different strategies and how that burnout can impact patient care. And then we are also gonna have a CME um approved um pick. And that's gonna be on also October 5th, but at 2.30 p.m., 2.30 to 3:30 p.m. So you can come and get your CME and also hopefully learn about your own burnout, the burnout that maybe your colleagues may have. And then we are gonna propose a lot of different strategies that you can bring to your group, to your facility, and see if we can all work together to diminish a little bit this burden of burnout.
Elizabeth McMahonStay tuned to Path News Network for more coverage of this issue in August. And finally, what makes an accurate, engaging image? That's the question the journal Nature recently posed to five scientific illustrators who create images for medicine, space, and science. Their responses, highlighted on Nature's website with sketches and full color illustrations, center on curiosity, collaboration, and communication. Though AI is a concern for illustrators, they say it isn't yet sophisticated enough to make judgment calls that bring life, context, and even history to an image. University of Toronto scientific illustrator Shehryar Saharan said, quote, in scientific illustration, you make decisions about what is known, what is uncertain, what a particular audience needs, and how to represent that visually. AI cannot make those choices and work with a clinician or researcher to negotiate what the image needs to communicate. That's all for today's Daily Edition. Be sure to check the show notes for more information on today's stories. Got a story you'd like us to cover on the daily edition? Write to us at stories at cap.org. We're back at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of the Daily Edition. I'm Elizabeth McMahon. Have a great day.