L. Maximilian Buja, MD

Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
Distinguished Teaching Professor
McGovern Medical School
The University of Texas Health Science Center (UTHEALTH)

Email:  L.Maximilian.Buja@uth.tmc.edu
Phone:  713-500-5403

Biography

I have been a faculty member at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas for 15 years and at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UT Health) for 30 years.  I have been engaged in major administrative activities at this medical school including serving as department chair, dean, executive vice president and head of the TMC Library.  My philosophy is focused on gearing administration to the service of the academic mission.  I have functioned as a physician-scientist actively engaged in scholarly investigation, educational activities and clinical service while also serving in leadership roles.  I continue to be actively engaged in teaching medical students, medical residents, clinical fellows, graduate students and research post-doctoral fellows.

I also conduct a clinical practice in cardiovascular pathology providing staffing of autopsy cases and surgical pathology consultation of cardiac and vascular cases and interpretation of myocardial biopsies from referrals.  I direct a cardiovascular pathology fellowship approved by the Texas Medical Board.   Since the establishment of an Advanced Heart Failure Center on campus, I have  served as the cardiovascular pathologist for the Center and have provided staffing for nearly 300 heart transplants, numerous LVADs, and post-transplant myocardial biopsies for evaluation and grading of antibody-mediated and acute cellular rejection.

Dr. Buja serves as a consultant in cardiovascular pathology for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.  He serves as the Director of the DPALM Autopsy Service at the affiliated teaching hospitals and has been an advocate of the importance of the autopsy as a tool in medical research and quality control in healthcare.  He is the editor-in-chief of Cardiovascular Pathology, the official journal of the Society for Cardiovascular Pathology.

Education

B.S.
Biology, Loyola University of the South, New Orleans, LA, 1964

M.D., with Honors
Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 1967

M.S.
Anatomy, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, 1968

Internship
Mixed Medicine, Charity Hospital, New Orleans, LA

Staff Associate
Pathology, National Heart and Lung Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1970

Residency
Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1972

Fellowship
Senior Investigator, Laboratory of Pathology, National Cancer Institute, NIH, Bethesda, MD, 1974

Areas of Expertise and Interests

Autopsy and cardiovascular pathology
Pathobiology of cardiovascular diseases:
Atherosclerosis
Ischemic heart disease
Cardiomyopathies
Mechanisms of cell injury
Cell systems and experimental models
Clinicopathological studies

Past and Current Educational Activities

– Leadership role in working group to develop cardiovascular module for problem based learning

– Leadership role in working group to develop cardiovascular module for new curriculum

– Lecturer in sophomore pathology course from 1989 to 2016

-Lecturer in new curriculum: cell injury, inflammation, cardiovascular pathology

– Editor/author of three atlases of pathology and textbook of cardiovascular pathology

Honors and Awards

Harlan J. Spjut Award, Houston Society of Clinical Pathologists, 1997
Appointed as the first University of Texas Chancellor’s Health Fellow in Education, April 2004
Provided leadership in the creation of The U.T. System Academy Kenneth I. Shine, M.D., Academy of Health Science Education
Initiated the annual statewide Innovations in Health Science Education Conference
Elected as the first President of the Shine Academy, 2005
George T. Caldwell,MD Distinguished Service Award, Texas Society of Pathologists, 2005
Founding Member and President, The University of Texas Kenneth I. Shine MD Academy of Health Science Education
Distinguished Teaching Professor in the University of Texas System, 2007
Outstanding Alumnus Award, Tulane Medical Alumni Association, 2008
Distinguished Achievement Award, Society for Cardiovascular Pathology, 2009
Founding member of the Academy of Master Educators at McGovern medical school, 2010
UT Health President Scholar Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2014

Certifications

Anatomic Pathology, American Board of Pathology, November 1972, Recertified January 1997 and January 2007

Publications
Read my PubMed publications

Selected Publications:

  • Buja LM, Krueger GRF. Netter’s Illustrated Human Pathology. Teterboro, NJ: Icon Learning Systems; 2005.  Second edition, Elsevier, 2014.
  • Patel NR, Anzalone ML, Buja LM, Elghetany MT.  Sudden cardiac death due to coronary artery  involvement by IgG4-related disease: a rare, serious complication of a rare disease.  Arch Pathol Lab Med.  2014; 138:833-836.
  • Krueger GRF, Buja LM, Chandrasekhar C (Editors). Atlas of Anatomic Pathology with Imaging. London: Springer; 2013.
  • Buja LM. The pathobiology of acute coronary syndromes: clinical implications and central role of the mitochondria. Texas Heart Inst J. 2013; 40:221-228.
  • Gahremanpour A, Vela D, Zheng Y, Silva GV, Fodor W, Cardoso CO, Baimbridge F, Fernandes MR, Buja LM, Perin EC. Xenotransplantation of human unrestricted somatic stem cells in a pig model of acute myocardial infarction. Xenotransplantation 2013; 20:110-122.
  • Segura AM, Frazier OH, Demirozu Z, Buja LM.  Histopathologic correlates of myocardial improvement in patients supported by a left ventricular assist device. Cardiovasc Pathol. 2011; 20: 139-145.
  • Vela DC, Silva GV, Assad JAR, Sousa ALS, Coulter S, Fernandes MR, Perin EC, Willerson, JT, Buja LM.  Histopathologic study of healing after allogenic mesenchymal stem cell delivery in myocardial infarction in dogs. J Histochem Cytochem. 2009;57:167-176.
  • Buja LM, Vela D. Cardiomyocyte death and renewal in the normal and diseased heart (Review article). Cardiovasc Pathol. 2008;17:349-374.
  • Buja LM, Cox SM, Lieberman SA, et al. A university system’s approach to enhancing the educational mission of health science schools and institutions: the University of Texas Academy of Health Science Education. Med Educ Online. 2013;18:1-6. Published 2013 Mar 13. doi:10.3402/meo.v18i0.20540
  • Thiene G, Veinot JP, Angelini A, et al. AECVP and SCVP 2009 recommendations for training in cardiovascular pathology. Cardiovasc Pathol. 2010;19(3):129-135. doi:10.1016/j.carpath.2009.12.001
  • Buja LM. Medical education today: all that glitters is not gold. BMC Med Educ. 2019;19(1):110. Published 2019 Apr 16. doi:10.1186/s12909-019-1535-9
  • Buja LM, Barth RF, Krueger GR, Brodsky SV, Hunter RL. The Importance of the Autopsy in Medicine: Perspectives of Pathology Colleagues. Acad Pathol. 2019;6:2374289519834041. Published 2019 Mar 10. doi:10.1177/2374289519834041