Meet our Team of Experts

Jerome Burke, M.D.

Dr. Jerome Burke is a Consultant Pathologist at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, California and Adjunct Clinical Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine. Canadian born, Dr. Burke received his undergraduate and medical degrees as well as residency in anatomic pathology at the University of Toronto receiving an FRCP(C) in Anatomic Pathology. During his residency, Dr. Burke spent a year in experimental pathology concentrating on electron microscopy of the spleen that lead to an MSc and three publications in the American Journal of Pathology. This was followed by a two year fellowship in hematopathology training with Dr. Henry Rappaport at the University of Chicago. Since completing that training, Dr. Burke has specialize in hematopathology and oncologic surgical pathology and has been a member of the permanent faculty of the University of Texas System Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Stanford University, and the City of Hope National Medical Center. Since 1987, he has been a member of the Department of Pathology at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center serving as Directory of Surgical Pathology (1987-2005) and Anatomic Pathology (1995-2005). Dr. Burke is a recognized authority on the morphologic aspects of malignant lymphomas and related conditions. He authored and coauthored more than 100 scientific publications including seminal papers on the splenic and bone marrow aspects of hairy cell leukemia as well as multiple publications on the clinicopathologic features of extranodal lymphomas of varying sites. Dr. Burke is best known as an expert on pathology of the spleen and he is the author of the chapter on spleen in all six editions of Sternberg’s Diagnostic Surgical Pathology. He has also contributed three chapters (Hodgkin Lymphoma: Histopathology and Differential Diagnosis, Extranodal Lymphoid Proliferations: General Principles and Extranodal Lymphomas and Lymphoid Hyperplasias of Miscellaneous Sites) to the three editions of Knowles’ Neoplastic Hematopathology. He has served as a faculty member of The Tutorial on Neoplastic Hematopathology continuously since 1972.

Seta Bedrosian, M.D.

Dr. Bedrosian earned a M.B.Ch.B. from the University of Baghdad in Iraq in 1970. She was board certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology in 1985, and earned additional certification in Cytopathology in 1993.

Professional training includes a twelve-month internship at Medical City Hospital in Baghdad, Iraq and a residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at the same institution. She also performed a residency in Anatomic Pathology at Royal Free Hospital in London, England as well as another at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in the same city mentored by professor Peter Scheuer and professor John Azzooardi respectively. In 1979, she was Chief Resident in Anatomic Pathology at the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London. Making her way to the U.S., she performed a four-year residency program in Anatomic Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Mt. Zion Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco, CA. She received her California licensure in 1982.

Dr. Bedrosian has worked at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley from 1985-2013, as well as at Summit Medical Center in Oakland as a Staff Surgical Pathologist.

Richard Hildebrandt, M.D.

After earning degrees in Psychology and Biology from the University of New Mexico, Dr. Hildebrandt received his medical doctorate from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, graduating in 1991. He was honored with the Outstanding Biomedical Research Achievement Award from this institution.

Post-graduate training includes a three-year residency in Anatomic Pathology at the University of California San Francisco Pathology Department, as well as a one-year residency in Clinical Pathology at the same medical center. Dr. Hildebrandt also completed a Fellowship in Surgical Pathology at UCSF and a Fellowship in Immunodiagnosis at Stanford University.

Since 1997, Dr. Hildebrandt has worked as Technical Director at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center, Eden Medical Center, and at Pathology Services, Inc. He is board certified in Anatomic Pathology.

William Ray Salyer, M.D. (Founder)

Dr. Salyer graduated from The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland in 1971. Upon graduation, he entered into an internship in Anatomic Pathology in the Department of Pathology at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. He also performed a two-year residency Anatomic Pathology in the Department of Pathology at this institution before working as a Clinical Fellow in the Department of Pathology at the American Cancer Society at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, NY. After his fellowship, Dr. Salyer returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital to serve as Chief Resident in Anatomic Pathology in the Department of Pathology.

Dr. Salyer is a Diplomate of the National Board of Medical Examiners and the American Board of Pathology. He is licensed in the state of California as well as the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

Professional memberships include:

• International Academy of Pathology
• American Society of Cytology
• Johns Hopkins Medical and Surgical Association
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Pathology Alumni
• Arthur Purdy Stout Society of Pathology
• American College of Pathology
• California Society of Pathologists
• California Academy of Medicine

Dr. Salyer has worked in numerous institutions in his expansive career. He served as a Staff Pathologist at Letterman Army Medical Center in San Francisco and as Acting Assistant Professor and Co-Director in Cytopathology for the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine early in his career. He also worked as Assistant Clinical Professor of Pathology in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine and as Director of Anatomic Pathology at Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley, California. Since 1995, Dr. Salyer has been a Staff Pathologist in the Department of Pathology at Alta Bates Medical Center and at Pathology Services, Inc.

Maria-Laura Mancianti, M.D.

After obtaining her Medical degree with honors in 1980 at the University of Siena Medical School, Italy, Dr. Mancianti completed a residency program in clinical Dermatology at the same university, and practiced dermatology until October, 1985. Between 1983 and 1986, motivated by her interest in basic science applied to dermatology, she also worked on a Doctorate degree in Experimental Dermatology sponsored by the University of Napoli, Italy.

In 1985, she left for the United States to work in the laboratory of Dr. Meenhard Herlyn at the Wistar Institute of Philadelphia, where she remained until 1988. At the Wistar Institute, she worked mostly on tumor progression in melanoma, and had the opportunity and privilege to collaborate with Dr. Wallace Clark, Dr. David Elder and other outstanding dermatopathologists and scientists studying the biology of melanoma. In 1988, she moved to San Francisco to work on keratinocyte differentiation in the laboratories of Dr. Peter Elias and Dr. Daniel Bikle, where she remained for four years. During her research years, Dr. Mancianti authored and coauthored numerous publications that appeared in major peer-reviewed journals

In 1992, she left the research field to return to the practice of medicine. First she completed one-year medical internship at the Presbyterian Hospital of Philadelphia (1992-1993), then was accepted into the residency program in anatomic pathology at Stanford University (1993-1997), where she remained to complete two fellowships, first in surgical pathology, then in dermatopathology, returning full circle to her original interest in cutaneous diseases.

In the summer of 1997 she began to work as surgical pathologist and dermatopathologist at Alta Bates Summit Hospital in Berkeley, California, where she held the position of medical director of Anatomic Pathology from 2005 to 2012. In 2002, Dr. Mancianti became a shareholder of Pathology Services Incorporated (PSI) and she has been the laboratory's President and Medical Director since 2005. Dr. Mancianti spends now some of her time in Southern California, where she works part-time as pathologist and dermatopathologist.

Although diagnostic and administrative duties take up most of her time, Dr. Mancianti has maintained a small connection with her basic science interests and has collaborated when possible in research projects with Dr. Ruby Gadially at the University of California San Francisco, and Dr. Ervine Epstein at Children Hospital Oakland Research Institute (CHORI)