Cullen Lilley

About Cullen Lilley

Exciting developments and trends? In surgical and medical pathology, I think we’ve seen exciting developments in the areas of spatial transcriptomics and proteomics. There are certainly still challenges in this area to work through, however, even if spatial omics does not get integrated into the pathology workflow, I think the knowledge gained from this field will ultimately impact how we understand diseases and histopathologic findings.

Of course, we can’t discuss exciting developments without mentioning digital pathology and informatics, which is likely to completely alter how pathology is practiced and taught in the upcoming years. The ability to digest large amounts of data and more accurately quantify certain histopathological findings is sure to strengthen our field and support the delivery of higher quality patient care.

Professional ambitions? My main ambition is completing my pathology residency and securing a fellowship in a subspecialty field, but I have not committed to anything at this point. Being in pathology residency is overwhelming but also exciting because I can devote all of my time to learning as much pathology as I can.

Overall, my career ambitions are to continue incorporating outreach and education into my daily practice, whether it be through virtual education on social media, outreach to local schools, direct instruction as a part of undergraduate/graduate medical education, or even informally. Being able to pass on the medical knowledge I’ve learned thus far has been incredibly rewarding, and I can’t wait to continue helping cultivate the next generation of physicians and diagnosticians in the future. 

Inspiring mentor or educator? Kamran Mirza has certainly been my biggest mentor in my career so far. We worked closely together during my time at Loyola University Chicago and built PathElective.com together, which was a feat in and of itself. Mirza continues to inspire me every day through his innovative approaches to pathology education, outreach, and research.

Being a member of the pathology field has given me the pleasure of meeting so many amazing people who have served as mentors and supporters, from providing career advice to research initiatives. I couldn’t possibly list everyone, but here are a few examples of some wonderful mentor figures that have had an impact on me: Sarah Dry, Jonathan Zuckerman, Sanam Loghavi, Kimberlee Mix, and Vijayalakshmi (Viju) Ananthanarayanan.