Nicola (Nick) M. Kouttab
Contact: nkouttab@providence.edu
Highest degree earned: PhD. Montana State University
Received an Honorary degree from Brown University for excellence in teaching : “Ad Eundem Gradum”
Current Employer:
Teaching summer classes at Providence College (Human Anatomy; Human Physiology)
Adjunct Associate Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine – Brown University. Reappointment renewed, July 2020 – July 2025.
Significant projects:
Established a core facility for flow cytometry program, at Roger Williams Medical Center, for use in in clinical diagnostic medicine to
1 – Indispensable for diagnosis and prognosis of blood cancers, e.g. Leukemia/Lymphoma. Also relapse of blood cancers.
2 – Indispensable for enumeration and phenotype of cells for the Stem Cell Transplantation Program at RWMC.
3 – The lab was chosen for analysis of HIV samples for T-cell counts and HIV count (using Polymerase chain reaction) for a major CDC sponsored research project to examine HIV status in women. All samples from RI where analyzed at RWMC. This study involved multiple hospitals including Miriam Hospital (Providence RI), Montefiore Hospital (New York), Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, Maryland), RWMC (providence RI), others.
4 – A large study for Haemonetics was performed in this laboratory.
5 – Analysis of blood samples from collections by RI blood Center were sent to the lab after processing, and before distribution for patient use, to ensure that the blood product was within FDA regulation. No samples were distributed to patients prior to this certification.
6 – All research samples for RWMC, other hospitals, and Brown University professors and students were sent to the lab for analysis (thousands of samples).
Biography:
I received my PhD in Microbiology/Immunology at Montana State University, Bozeman, Montana. My graduate thesis was focused on understanding the immune system, in particular T-lymphocytes, using Athymic (Nude) mice, which were devoid of these cells due to lack of thymic tissue. This resulted in a column in the local newspaper, an interview on the evening news, and a grant to continue these studies.
I continued work on the immune response through a 3-year Post Doctoral Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (National Cancer Institute), Bethesda , Maryland. Following which I was offered a position in the Pathology Department at MD Anderson Hospital in Houston TX for a research position where I continued the work in Immunology/Pathology. Our Pathology group was successful in obtaining significant grant money from the National Cancer Institute and other sources.
After 10 years at MD Anderson Hospital, several of us were recruited to reorganize the Pathology Department for both Research and Clinical services at Roger Williams Medical Center (RWMC), Providence RI. We moved there in 1986. My responsibility was to organize an Immunopathology Program and served as its Director. Since RWMC was associated with Brown University, it gave me the opportunity to also teach graduate courses at Brown University; plus participate in other functions, for example, Graduate Student Admissions Committee, mentoring graduate students in the department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine. Eventually I was introduced to Providence College by Professor Y. Wan who brought his students to the Pathology Laboratory where we showed them the different aspects of how we process patient samples to reach a diagnosis. My relationship with Providence College has been very enriching, and I continue to teach Human Anatomy, and Human Physiology in summer sessions.
Courses taught:
Techniques in Pathobiology
Human Anatomy
Human Physiology
