University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Program Director	Program Admin
Ibrahim A. Hashim, MSc, PhD, FIBMS, CSc, DABCC, FACC	Rachel Burks
Professor of Pathology, A.J.Gill Professor of Pathology	Program Coordinator
Ibrahim.Hashim@utsouthwestern.edu	rachel.burks@utsouthwestern.edu
(214) 648-7884	(214) 648-2579

About the Program

The Clinical Chemistry Fellowship Program duration is two years in length regardless of the applicant’s credentials and prior clinical chemistry experience. The program has a complement of two fellows with one fellow accepted per year. The aim is to have a first year “junior fellow” and a second year “senior fellow” at any particular time during the program.

In addition to general clinical chemistry laboratory rotations, the Clinical Chemistry Fellowship Program offers exposure to practical laboratory training in pediatric clinical chemistry, hematology, coagulation, molecular diagnostics, forensic toxicology, and medical microbiology. Rotations include practical laboratory orientation and exposure, as well as clinical laboratory exposure through attending conferences with residents and faculty in that specialty. On-call service activities provide the fellow with real-time exposure and an excellent training opportunity. The fellow is on-call for two weeks every month, which includes weekends. The fellow is the second on-call for technical and clinical calls. There is a pathology resident first on-call and a clinical chemistry faculty third on-call. The fellow is expected to attend professional meetings such as American Association for Clinical Chemistry annual meeting and local TX-section AACC symposia. The fellow is also expected to submit a research abstract to AACC national and local pathology meetings and to submit a manuscript for publication.

Program Requirements

To be considered for the program, prospective fellows must have:

1. Earned a doctoral degree (Ph.D.) in clinical chemistry, biochemistry, chemistry, or other related biological sciences and/or a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) or Osteopathic Medicine (D.O.) from an accredited university or college. M.D./D.O. applicants must either have or be eligible for Texas Medical License/Institutional permit.
2. Minimum of 30 semester hours (undergraduate or graduate level) of coursework in analytical, inorganic, organic, physical, and biochemistry to qualify for certification by the ABCC.
   • If a candidate’s academic credentials are obtained outside the United States, they must be deemed equivalent by an appropriate education evaluation agency.

To Apply

Applications are accepted throughout the academic year. Invitations to interview will be extended to qualified candidates at the discretion of the program director.

The application packet must include:

1. Application Form
2. Personal Statement
3. Curriculum vitae
4. Three letters of reference

Training Level

Postdoctoral Training Level
Number of positions available per year: 1 every other year
Duration of program: 2 years
Approximate annual salary or stipend: PGY Scale
Source of funding: Departmental
Current number of trainees: 1
Number of past graduates: 15

Faculty

Jing Cao, PhD, DABCC	Pediatric Clinical Chemistry, Point-of-Care Testing, Mass Spectrometry
Sara Dempsey, PhD	Forensic Toxicology, Mass Spectrometry, Laboratory Assurance and Control
Ibrahim A. Hashim, M.Sc., PhD, C.Sc., FIBMS, DABCC, FACC	Endocrine Testing, Sepsis, IL-6, Prolactin, Fetomaternal Testing
Patricia Jones, PhD, DABCC, FADLM	General Laboratory Medicine, Pediatric Clinical Chemistry, Inborn Errors of Metabolism, Mass Spectrometry, Laboratory Advocacy
Alagarraju Muthukumar, PhD, DABCC	General Laboratory Medicine, New Assay Development and Validation, Clinical Trials, Repurposing of Data