William C. McDonald, M.D.

  United Hospital Laboratory

333 N Smith Ave
St Paul, MN 55102

(651) 241-8901

fax (651) 241-7273

My interest in neuropathology began at Mayo Medical School, where Dr. Joseph Parisi generously allowed me to study the cognitively normal elderly brains in Mayo's Alzheimer's Disease Patient Registry (ADPR). We presented our findings in abstract at the 1997 American Association of Neuropathologists (AANP) meeting. I trained in both anatomic and clinical pathology before beginning my neuropathology fellowship at UCSF. As a neuropathology fellow, I was trained in a broad range of clinical neuropathology including muscle and nerve biopsy interpretation, brain and spinal cord pathology, infectious neuropathology, and autopsy neuropathology including pediatric and dementia pathology. The UCSF neurosurgical service was particularly active, and provided a superb exposure to adult brain tumors and their management. My mentors and teachers in neuropathology included Drs. Andrew Bollen, Stephen DeArmond, Tarik Tihan, and Scott Vandenberg. As part of my fellowship, I worked in the laboratory of Dennis Deen, Ph.D., of UCSF Neurological Surgery. In Dr. Deen's laboratory I studied models of glioma invasion. In particular, I explored the behavior of rat gliosarcoma 9L in the irradiated brains of Fischer 344 rats and its applicability as a model of tumor invasion. Following my neuropathology fellowship, I completed an additional year of training in surgical pathology and served as Chief Resident in Anatomic Pathology at UCSF. I'm currently interested in expanding the role of molecular markers in infiltrative brain tumors. We offer fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) for loss of chromosomes 1p and 19q--an abnormality that has been shown to have both prognostic and predictive value in oligodendrogliomas.

PROFESSIONAL TRAINING AND EXPERIENCE

• Staff Pathologist, Hospital Pathology Associates, 2004 - present 

EDUCATION  

• Fellowship, Surgical Pathology, UCSF, 2003-2004

• Fellowship, Neuropathology, UCSF, 2001-2003

• Chief resident in Laboratory Medicine, UCSF, 2000-2001

• Residency, Anatomic and Clinical pathology, University of California, San Francisco 1997-2001

• Medical School, Mayo Medical School, Rochester, MN, 1997

• Undergraduate, University of Minnesota, Morris, MN, 1993

HONORS & AWARDS

• Recipient of CAP Foundation Strategic Science Award to attend conference on HER-2/neu testing, Chicago, Illinois, May 4-5, 2002

• Graduate Medical Education Committee member, UCSF, 2000-2001

• Zumbro Valley Medical Society, Minnesota, Legislation Committee1993-97

• MMA/Medical Student Section Chair 1995-96.  Active as the immediate past chair 1996

• Minnesota Medical Association (MMA) delegate 1994-96; delegate to special interim meeting Jan. 1995.  Reference committee member 1995, 1996

• American Medical Association medical student chapter secretary/treasurer, Mayo Medical School, 1993-94, treasurer 1994-95

• Medical school subcommittee for the LCME site visit 1995, Mayo Medical School:  Subcommittee on Educational Program Leading to the M.D. degree

• Pathophysiology course (MS-II) review committee, Mayo Medical School, 1994-95

PROFESSIONAL CERTIFICATIONS

• Anatomic and Clinical Pathology - 2004

• Neuropathology - 2005

LICENSURE

• State of Minnesota - 2004

• State of Wisconsin - 2004

• State of California - 1999

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS

• American Association of Neuropathologists

• College of American Pathologists

• American Medical Association

• American Society of Clinical Pathologists

• United States and Canadian Academy of Pathology

• Ramsey County Medical Society

• Minnesota Medical Association

• Minnesota Society of Pathologists

PUBLICATIONS

• McDonald WC, Erickson MD, Abraham BM, Robbat Jr. A.  Developments and Application of Field Mass Spectrometers.  Environmental Science and Technology 1994;28(7):336A-342A. 

• McDonald W.  Morphology of Medically Important Fungi.  .http://pangloss.ucsfmedicalcenter.org/Education/fung_morph/homepage1.html, posted June 2001.

• Knopman DS, Parisi JE, Salviati A, Floriach-Robert M, Boeve BF, Ivnik RJ, Smith GE, Dickson DW, Johnson KA, Petersen LE, McDonald WC, Braak H, Petersen RC. Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology 2003;62(11):1087-95.

• Sohn AH, Probert W, Glaser C, Gupta N, Bollen AW, Wong J, Grace E, McDonald W. Human neurobrucellosis with intracerebral granuloma caused by a marine mammal Brucella  spp. Emerging Infectious Diseases 2003;9(4):485-8.

ABSTRACTS

• McDonald W, Boeve B, Johnson K, Parisi J.  Pathologic features of cognitively normal elderly control brains.  Journal of Neuropathology and Experimental Neurology 1997;56(5):616.

• McDonald W, Chen Y, Zaloudek C, Magrane G, Waldman F.  ERBB2 in infiltrative lobular carcinoma:  dissociation between immunohistochemistry and fluorescence in situ hybridization.  Modern Pathology 2003;16(1):40A.

• Niewmierzycka S, McDonald W, Karnezis AN, Tihan T.  UCSF Experience in Neuropathology Frozen Section Diagnoses.  Modern Pathology 2003;16(1):292A. 

• McDonald WC, Nigro JM, Lin D, Jenkins RB, Feuerstein BG, Burger PC, Tihan T.  Glial Neoplasms Resembling Oligodendrogliomas in Children:  Does Pediatric Oligodendroglioma Exist?  J Neuropathol Exp Neurol 2003;62:571.