Dr. George J. Netto is Professor and the Robert and Ruth Anderson Endowed Chair of Pathology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). 

 

Dr. Netto received his medical degree from Damascus University before residency in anatomic and clinical pathology at Baylor University Medical Center and fellowships in surgical pathology at the Washington University School of Medicine, and in urologic pathology at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.  In 2005, he joined the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine faculty and served as Director of Surgical Pathology Molecular Diagnostics and Professor of Pathology, Urology and Oncology. He currently serves as Pathologist-in-Chief and Senior Scientist at the O’Neal Comprehensive Cancer Center and the 

Civitan International Research Center at UAB. 

 

His research focused on urologic and molecular diagnostic pathology helped characterize the incidence and role of TMPRSS2-ERG fusion and PTEN loss as a prognostic biomarker in prostate adenocarcinoma. Dr. Netto and collaborators are credited with the important discovery related to the high incidence of TERT gene promoter mutation in muscle invasive bladder cancer and upper tract urothelial carcinoma. The discovery led to the development of a novel, noninvasive urine-based genetic assay for early detection of bladder cancer, UroSEEK, that promises significant decrease in the need for repeated invasive and costly cystoscopy procedures.

 

Dr. Netto is the Editor-in-Chief for Modern Pathology. He serves on the editorial boards of the journals of Human Pathology, Pathology, and Virchow Archives European Journal of Pathology. He also serves as an expert member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Editorial Board for the upcoming Urinary and Male Genital Tumours volume. He served previously as associate editor of the for translation and basic science for the journal Urology and Advances in Anatomic and Molecular Pathology. He has authored four books in urologic pathology, and is the editor of a widely recognized textbook on genomics in pathology, Genomic Applications in Pathology, currently in its second edition. Dr. Netto has also authored more than 350 articles and book chapters.