Job Description

As a director of two year-two courses, the general pathology course which focuses on the mechanisms of diseases and the systemic pathology course which focuses on specific organ diseases, Dr. Diaz is responsible for the quality of the teaching of these two courses, including lectures, laboratory group discussions, problem-based learning exercises and the clinicopathological correlation exercises. He is also a member of the years one and two curriculum committee.

Biosketch

Dr Diaz joined the faculty of the University of South Florida (USF) within the department of pathology at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa (Florida) in 1991 where he served as an expert genitourinary pathologist and as a chief of surgical pathology. In 2001 he joined the Florida Hospital department of pathology in Orlando (Florida) as a director of molecular pathology. In 2002 he returned to EVMS as professor and vice-chairman of pathology, where he also served as director of anatomic and molecular pathology and as a member of the Virginia Prostate Center and the George Wright Center for biomedical proteomics, an internationally recognized laboratory for its contributions on serum protein profiling with mass spectrometry for the early detection of prostate cancer. In 2006 he joined the faculty of the Cancer Therapy Research Center’s Institute for Drug Development (IDD) at the University of Texas in San Antonio (Texas) where he served as a chairman of the division of molecular pathology and director of the molecular oncology targeted therapy program. In the summer of 2008 Dr. Diaz joined the faculty of the Florida State University College of Medicine to continue his career with a new focus on medical education in Pathology. Dr. Diaz is an accomplished genitourinary pathologist and has published extensively on this field. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Pathology in both anatomic and clinical pathology. He is also one of the first and few US pathologists certified on “molecular genetic pathology” by the American Boards of Pathology and Medical Genetics. He is married to Inmaculada Silverio and have two children: Igancio Diaz-Silverio and Sergio Diaz-Silverio.

Education

Dr Diaz obtained his MD and PhD from the Autonomous University of Madrid (Spain) in 1982 and 2000, respectively. In 1983 he joined the faculty at the Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) within the Jones Institute for Reproductive Medicine in Norfolk (Virginia) as a fellow in Reproductive Endocrinology. In 1986 he began a new career in cancer research completing his training in anatomic pathology at EVMS and subsequently, a fellowship in surgical pathology and a residency in clinical pathology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation.In 1993 he took a sabbatical to train in molecular pathology at the New England Medical Center (Tufts University) in Boston (Massachusetts).

Service

Dr. Diaz has been co-investigator on multiple NIH/NCI and DOD sponsored grants, has presented numerous didactic and research seminars nationally and internationally. He is member of the Editorial Board of Frontiers in Bioscience and reviewer for the Journal of Urology. He has served in many hospital, university and national committees, including: 1) South Western Oncology Group Genitourinary Committee, Translational Medicine Subcommittee, 2) Inspector for the College of American Pathologist’s Laboratory Accreditation Program: Anatomic, Clinical and Molecular Pathology, 3 Pediatric Oncology Group, 4)South Western Oncology Group: Hematopathology Subcommittee

Honors/Awards

Cleveland Clinic Foundation William E Lower Award. First Prize: Basic Science

Memberships

1. Group of Research in Pathology Education 2. National Cancer Institute’s Early Detection Research Network 3. College of American Pathologists 4. United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology 5. American Urological Association 6. Association of Molecular Pathologists 7. South Western Oncology Group

Research Focus

Molecular pathogenesis of cancer with special interest on genitourinary malignancies Pathobiology of cancer stem cells Molecularly defined cancer targeted therapy

Publications

Most Recent Articles and Book Chapters 1.Diaz JI, Cazares L and Semmes OJ: Tissue Processing for Proteomics Analysis in METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY vol. 428: Clinical Proteomics: Methods and Protocols 2007; 3: 43-53. Vlahou A; Ed. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. 2. Cazares L, Diaz JI, Drake RR and Semmes OJ: MALDI/SELDI Protein Chip Profiling of Serum for the Identification of Cancer Biomarkers, in METHODS IN MOLECULAR BIOLOGY vol. 428: Clinical Proteomics: Methods and Protocols 2007; 7: 125-140. Vlahou A; Ed. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. 3. McLerran D, Grizzle W, Feng Z, Bigbee W, Banez L, Cazares L, Chan D, Diaz J, Izbicka E, Kagan J, Malik G, Oelschlager D, Partin A, Randolph T, Rosenzweig N, Srivastava Sh, Srivastava Su, Thompson I, Thornquist M, Troyer D, Yasui Y, Zhang Z, Zhu L, and Semmes O.: Analytical Validation of Protein Expression Profiling for the Diagnosis of Prostatic Carcinoma; Sources of Sample Bias. Clin Chem 2008; 54 (1): 44-52. 4. McLerran D, Grizzle W, Feng Z, Thompson I, Bigbee W, Cazares L, Chan D, Dahlgren J, Diaz J, Kagan J, Lin D, Malik G, Oelschlager D, Partin A, Randolph T, Sokoll L, Srivastava Sh, Srivastava Su, Thornquist M, Troyer D, Yasui Y, Zhang Z, Zhu L, and Semmes OJ.: SELDI-TOF-MS Serum Protein Profiling does not Reliably Detect Prostate Cencer. Clin Chem 2008; 54 (1): 53-60. 5. Schellhammer P, Diaz J, Fabrizio M, Davis J, Given R, Main B, Chaganty N, Hussein R and McKenzie R.: Computer Modeling Technology to Assess Extra-Capsular Tissue Coverage of Whole Mount Sections after Retropubic and Laparoscopic Radical Prostatectomy. J of Urology 2207; 178: 1301-1305. 6. Drake RR, Schwegler EE, Malik G, Diaz JI, Block T, Mehta A, and Semmes OJ.: Lectin capture strategies combined with mass spectrometry for the discovery of serum glycoprotein biomarkers. Mol and Cell Proteomics 2006; 5: 1957-1967. 7. Yang H, Wen YY, Zhao R, Lin YL Fournier K, Yang HY, Qui Y, Diaz J, Laronga C, Lee MH.: DNA Damage-Induced Protein 14-3-3 Sigma Inhibits Protein Kinase B/ Akt Activation and Suppresses Akt-Activated Cancer. Cancer Research 2006; 66 (6): 3096-3015. 8. Yang H, Zhang Y, Zhao R, Wen Y-Y, Fournier K, Wu H-B, Yang H-Y, Diaz J, Laronga C, Lee M-H.: Negative Cell Cycle Regulator 14-3-3 Sigma Stabilizes p27/Kip1 by Inhibiting the Activity of PKB/Akt. Oncogene 2006; 25 (33): 4585-4594. 9. Holterman D, Diaz J, Blackmore P, Davis J, Schellhammer P, Corica A, Semmes J and Vlahou A.: Over-expression of a-Defensin is Associated with Bladder Cancer Invasiveness. Urologic Oncology 2006; 24 (2): 97-108. 10. Soderdahl D, Diaz J, Raba D, Schellhammer P and Fabrizio M.: Laparoscopic radical prostatectomy: evaluation of specimen pathologic features to critically assess and modify surgical technique. Urology 2005; 66(3): 552-556. 11. Mirkin S, Arslan M, Chrurikov D, Corica A, Diaz J, Williams S, Bocca S and Oehninger S.: In search of candidate genes critically expressed in human endometrium during the window of implantation. Human Reproduction 2005; 20 (8): 2104-2117. 12. Malik G., Ward MD, Grizzle WE, Adam BL, Diaz J and Semmes OJ.: Serum levels of an Isoform of Apolipoprotein A-II as a Potential Marker for Prostate Cancer. Clinical Cancer Research 2005; 11(3): 1073-1085. 13. Mirkin S, Nikas G, Hsiu JG, Diaz J and Oehninger S.: Gene Expression Profiles and Structural/Functional Features of the Peri-Implantation Endometrium in Natural and Gonadotropin-Stimulated Cycles. J of Clin Endocrinol and Metabol 2004; 89(11): 5742-5752. 14. Diaz J, Cazares LH, Corica A and Semmes O.: Selective Capture of Prostatic Basal Cells and Secretory Epithelial Cells for Proteomic and Genomic Analysis. Urol Oncol 2004; 22 (4): 329-326.