Maria Mrozowicz Picken, MD, PhD Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine Director of Renal Pathology, Immunofluorescence and Electron Microscopy Laboratories Co-Director of Anatomic Pathology Molecular Laboratory (888) LUHS-888

Dr. Picken received her MD and PhD degrees from the School of Medicine, University of Gdansk, Poland. She completed her residency training in anatomic and clinical pathology at New York University Medical Center, New York, followed by a fellowship in Immunopathology at the same institution. Presently, Dr. Picken is a Professor of Pathology and Internal Medicine, Co-Director of the Anatomic Pathology Molecular Laboratory, and Director of the Renal Pathology, Immunofluorescence and Electron Microscopy Laboratories at Loyola University Medical Center. Dr. Picken holds full medical licensure in Illinois and New York State (inactive). She is certified by the American Board of Pathology in anatomic and clinical pathology and immunopathology.

Dr. Picken's clinical responsibilities include general surgical pathology, with special interest in medical kidney diseases and urologic pathology, amyloid and related disorders, transplant pathology, cardiac pathology, electron microscopy and immunofluorescence. Dr. Picken is particularly interested in the application of molecular techniques and technology to the practice of anatomic pathology.

Dr. Picken is a member of the Editorial Board of Amyloid, the Journal of Protein Folding Disorders, the Medical Science Monitor and the International Advisory Board on Amyloidosis. She is a member of the Medical Advisory Board of the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois and of the NIH sponsored Data Safety Monitoring Board on Amyloidosis treatment trial. She has served as a reviewer for: Modern Pathology, Kidney International, Amyloid, the Journal of Protein Folding Disorders, Annals of Internal Medicine, Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Journal of Investigative Dermatology, Nephrology-Dialysis-Transplantation, Clinical Infectious Diseases, European Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Expert Review of Anticancer Therapy, Medical Science Monitor, and The Scientific World Journal.

Dr. Picken recently co-chaired the session on Amyloidosis and related disorders at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Nephrology, where she was also a presenter at the Official Symposium on Diagnosis and treatment of AA Amyloidosis. Dr. Picken also co-chaired the Symposium on Renal Diseases at the XIIth Ultrapath Conference on Diagnostic EM, with Related Surgical, Clinical, and Molecular Pathology, Barcelona, Spain. She was an invited speaker at the same conference and lectured on the classification of renal tumors with respect to emerging new molecular and electron microscopic studies.

Dr. Picken recently directed a number of workshops and tutorials on Diagnosis and Treatment of Amyloidosis at national and international meetings, including the annual meetings/conferences of: the International Congress of Immunology and FOCIS (Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies), the American Society of Nephrology, the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the National Kidney Foundation, and the American Society for Clinical Pathology. Dr. Picken has also been a speaker for the Systemic Amyloidosis Support Group and the College of American Pathologists. In addition to local and national speaking engagements, she has recently lectured in Canada, Australia and Spain.

Dr. Picken is a member of the US and Canadian Academy of Pathology, the American Society of Nephrology, the Renal Pathology Society, the International Society of Amyloidosis, the International Society of Urological Pathology, the Society for Ultrastructural Pathology, the College of American Pathologists, the American Society for Clinical Pathology, the American Society of Cytopathology, the Kidney Cancer Association, the National Kidney Foundation of Illinois, and the Chicago Pathology Society – Illinois Registry of Anatomic Pathology. She has been actively involved in several of these societies as a member, or chair, of various committees, as an abstract reviewer and, most recently, as a Councilor of the Renal Pathology Society. She was recently chosen to be a spokesperson for the College of American Pathologists and was featured on the cover of “CAP Today” in connection with a lead article on Amyloidosis diagnosis and treatment. At the local and departmental level, she serves on the Chicago Pathology Society Program Committee, Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects, the Educational Committee and the Pathology Executive Committee.

Dr. Picken’s research interests have focused on various aspects of protein folding disorders, particularly amyloid and related disorders. To date, she has published more than 100 scientific articles in peer-reviewed journals. She is currently exploring the applicability of proteomics technology to the early detection and characterization of abnormally folded proteins and their precursors. This project, which is based on the concept of capturing amyloid and pre-amyloidotic deposits by specific ligands and characterizing the proteins using surface enhanced laser desorption/ionization (SELDI), is supported by a research grant from the Amyloidosis Foundation. Using this approach, Dr. Picken has shown that amyloid deposits of transthyretin can be detected in the myocardium by SELDI-mass spectrometry before they can be detected by any of the traditional methods, including immunohistochemistry. Dr. Picken also has a long publication record in experimental pathology using animal models of disease. She is involved in a long-term collaborative study on the pathology of hypertensive injury in a rat remnant kidney model and genetic susceptibility to hypertensive injury.

Publications

View a partial list of Dr. Picken's publications through the National Library of Medicine's PubMed online database.