Brian Y. Merritt, MD, FCAP

Director of Molecular Pathology

Board-Certified Hematopathologist and Molecular Pathologist

Dr. Brian Merritt is a Board-Certified Anatomic and Clinical Pathologist with subspecialty expertise in Molecular Genetic Pathology and Hematopathology. He has held leadership roles at various healthcare institutions, including Ben Taub Hospital, Harris Health System, AccessDx Laboratory, and Baylor Genetics. Dr. Merritt’s extensive experience includes serving as Interim Chief of Pathology and Medical Director of Hematology and Flow Cytometry at Ben Taub Hospital and as Medical Director of the Cancer Genetics Section at Baylor Genetics. He has also held multiple CLIA/CAP laboratory directorships and has engaged in medical consulting roles for several healthcare companies.

Dr. Merritt was an Associate Professor at Baylor College of Medicine, where he has made significant contributions to the fields of pathology and molecular genetics. His dedication to education and research is evident through his faculty appointments and involvement in various local, state, and national committees.

Throughout his career, Dr. Merritt has conducted research and contributed to publications on topics such as pediatric lymphomas, myelodysplastic syndromes, and genetic mutations in hematologic malignancies. He is passionate about advancing personalized medicine, legislative advocacy for clinical laboratory diagnostics, and improving patient care.

Dr. Merritt’s expertise and dedication to advancing pathology and precision medicine, combined with his commitment to providing the optimal care for each patient, make him a respected professional in his field.

Education

Fellowship Training

Molecular Genetic Pathology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Hematopathology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Residency Training

Anatomic & Clinical Pathology
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Medical School

Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX

Undergraduate

Baylor University
Waco, TX

Board Certifications

Molecular Genetic Pathology

The American Board of Pathology
The American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics

Hematology

The American Board of Pathology

Anatomic & Clinical Pathology

The American Board of Pathology

Memberships

College of American Pathologists

Association for Molecular Pathology

American Society of Clinical Oncology

Texas Society of Pathologists

Research & Publications

Research

Merritt BY, Patel NR, Rao PH, Kumar V, Fang E, Roy A, López-Terrada DH. Pediatric low-hypodiploid B acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with increased frequencies of TP53 mutations and Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Platform presentation at the Trainee Research Symposium, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, March 6, 2015.
Merritt BY, Sarabia SF, Roy A, Sheehan AM, Punia JN, Webb CR, Navarro AL, Jakacky J, López-Terrada DH. CALR exon 9 mutations are rare in pediatric primary myelofibrosis and other myeloproliferative conditions of childhood. Platform presentation at the Association for Molecular Pathology 2014 Annual Meeting, National Harbor, MD, Nov. 12-15, 2014, and at the 2014 Texas Society of Pathologists Young Pathologists’ Section Retreat Abstract Presentation Mini-Series, San Antonio, TX, Aug. 16-17, 2014.
Merritt BY, López-Terrada DH, Simko SJ, Sheehan AM, Hernandez VS, Major AM, Curry CV. MYC immunohistochemistry correlates with MYC gene rearrangement status in pediatric Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Platform presentation at the Trainee Research Symposium, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, March 28, 2014.
Merritt BY, Curry JL, Sheehan AM, Diwan AH, Duvic M, Vega F, Prieto VG, Curry CV. Subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma (αβ) with an aggressive course. Oral presentation at the XVI Meeting of the European Association for Haematopathology Lymphoma Workshop, Lisbon, Portugal, Oct. 20-25, 2012.
Nan X, Greenwood M, Sanchez CG, Zing Y, Zieske AW, Ibrahim IF, Baker K, Rice L, Merritt BY, Pingali SR, Olsen RJ, Iyer SP. An integer weighted genomic mutation scoring (IWGMS) using the TruSight Myeloid Sequencing Panel (Illumina) shows higher mortality in patients with intermediate risk acute myeloid leukemia – a retrospective study. Poster presentation at the 58th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, San Diego, CA, Dec. 3-6, 2016, and Eposter presentation at the 22nd Congress of the European Hematology Association, Madrid, Spain, June 22-25, 2017.
Coffey AM, Aqil B, Merritt BY, Elghetany MT, Curry CV. Pediatric nodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma presenting with advanced stage and other unusual features. Case included at the 18th Meeting of the European Association for Haematopathology, Basel, Switzerland, Sept. 3-8, 2016.
Fisher KE, Gramatges MM, Sayeed H, Somvanshi S, Rau RE, Merritt BY, Patel NR, Roy A, Marcogliese AN, Punia JN, Bertuch AA, Redell ML, Rabin KR, López-Terrada DH. A custom targeted next-generation sequencing mutation panel for pediatric hematologic malignancies: a pilot study. Poster presentation at the Association for Molecular Pathology 2015 Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, Nov. 5-7, 2015.
Merritt BY, Patel NR, Rao PH, Kumar V, Fang E, Roy A, López-Terrada DH. Pediatric low-hypodiploid B acute lymphoblastic leukemia is associated with increased frequencies of TP53 mutations and Li-Fraumeni syndrome. Poster presentation at the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology 2015 Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, March 21-27, 2015, and at the Texas Society of Pathologists 94th Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, Jan. 23-25, 2015.
Merritt BY, Sarabia SF, Roy A, Sheehan AM, Punia JN, Webb CR, Navarro AL, Jakacky J, López-Terrada DH. CALR exon 9 mutations are rare in pediatric primary myelofibrosis and other myeloproliferative conditions of childhood. Poster presentation at the Association for Molecular Pathology 2014 Annual Meeting, National Harbor, MD, Nov. 12-15, 2014, and at the Trainee Research Symposium, Department of Pathology & Immunology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, March 6, 2015.
Merritt BY, Punia JN, Bertuch AA, Sheehan AM, Curry CV, Elghetany MT. Hematologic findings in nonfamilial nonsyndromic pediatric patients with GATA2 abnormalities. Poster presentation at the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology 2014 Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA, March 1-7, 2014, at the Texas Society of Pathologists 93rd Annual Meeting, Houston, TX, Jan. 17-19. 2014, and at the 10th Annual Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Centers Research Symposium, Houston, TX, May 8, 2014.
Hsu A, Gramatges MM, Williams C, Merritt BY, Elghetany MT, Holland SM, Bertuch AA. GATA2 mutations in nonsyndromic pediatric myelodysplastic syndrome. Poster presentation at the 55th American Society of Hematology Annual Meeting and Exposition, New Orleans, LA, Dec. 7-10, 2013.
Merritt BY, George ER, Sheehan AM, Punia JN. Early T-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Case included at the Society for Hematopathology/European Association for Haematopathology 2013 Workshop, Houston, TX, Oct. 24-26, 2013.
Merritt BY, López-Terrada DH, Simko SJ, Sheehan AM, Hernandez VS, Major AM, Curry CV. MYC immunohistochemistry correlates with MYC gene rearrangement status in pediatric Burkitt lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Poster presentation at the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology 2013 Annual Meeting, Baltimore, MD, March 2-8, 2013, and at the Texas Society of Pathologists 92nd Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, Jan. 25-27, 2013.
Aqil B, Elghetany MT, Simko SJ, Merritt BY, Lu X, Curry CV. A rare case of childhood marginal zone lymphoma with unusual clinicopathologic and cytogenetic features for pediatric variant. Poster presentation at the Texas Society of Pathologists 92nd Annual Meeting, Austin, TX, Jan. 25-27, 2013.
Merritt BY, Sasa GS, Curry CV, Mahoney DH Jr, Sheehan AM, Elghetany MT. Juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia: analysis of 7 cases according to the 2008 WHO criteria. Poster presentation at the United States & Canadian Academy of Pathology 2012 Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC, Canada, March 17-23, 2012, and at the Texas Society of Pathologists 91st Annual Meeting, Dallas, TX, Jan. 13-14, 2012.
Merritt BY, Best Rocha A, Bañez EI. Plasmablasts as an indicator of poor prognosis in plasma cell leukemia. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists (CAP’11 – THE Pathologists’ Meeting), Grapevine, TX, Sept. 11-14, 2011, and at the Texas Society of Pathologists 90th Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX, Jan. 14-15, 2011.
Merritt BY, Lai S. Concurrent chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma, influenza A (H1N1) infection, and hemophagocytosis: an autopsy case report. Poster presentation at the annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists (CAP’10 – THE Pathologists’ Meeting), Chicago, IL, Sept. 26-29, 2010.

Publications

Fisher KE, Ferguson LS, Coffey AM, Merritt BY, Curry JL, Marcogliese AN, Major AM, Kamdar KY, Lopez-Terrada DH, Curry CV. Programmed cell death ligand 1 expression in aggressive pediatric non-Hodgkin lymphomas: frequency, genetic mechanisms, and clinical significance. Haematologica. 2022 Jan 27. PMID: 35081690.
Chen Y, Talukder R, Merritt BY, King KY, Kimmel M, Rivero G, Sosa R. Genomic trajectory in leukemogenesis of myeloproliferative neoplasms: a case report. BMC Medical Genomics. 2021 May 22;14(1):137. PMID: 34022887.
Sun Y, Blieden C, Merritt BY, Sosa R, Rivero G. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis and myelodysplastic syndrome: a case report and review of the literature. Journal of Medical Case Reports. 2021 Mar 1;15(1):98. PMID: 33648567.
Coffey AM, Merritt BY, Curry CV. Down syndrome-associated hematologic disorders and leukemia. In: Chang CC, Ohgami RS, editors. Precision Molecular Pathology of Myeloid Neoplasms (Molecular Pathology Library, Vol. 12). 1st ed. Springer International Publishing AG; 2018. p. 261-80.
Fisher KE, Hsu AP, Williams CL, Sayeed H, Merritt BY, Elghetany MT, Holland SM, Bertuch AA, Gramatges MM. Somatic mutations in children with GATA2-associated myelodysplastic syndrome who lack other features of GATA2 deficiency. Blood Advances. 2017 Feb;1(7):443-8. PMID: 29296959.
Aqil B, Merritt BY, Elghetany MT, Kamdar KY, Lu X, Curry CV. Childhood nodal marginal zone lymphoma with unusual clinicopathologic and cytogenetic features for the pediatric variant: a case report. Pediatric and Developmental Pathology. 2015 Mar-Apr;18(2):167-71. Epub. 2015 Jan 27. PMID: 25625642.
Merritt BY. Media review: Molecular Diagnostics of Infectious Diseases, 3rd ed. Lab Medicine. 2015 46:e16-e17.
Merritt BY, Curry JL, Duvic M, Vega F, Sheehan AM, Curry CV. Pediatric subcutaneous panniculitis-like T-cell lymphoma with features of hemophagocytic syndrome. Pediatric Blood & Cancer. 2013 Nov;60(11): 1916-7. Epub. 2013 Jul 19. PMID: 23868752.
Lai S, Merritt BY (co-first author), Chen L, Green LK. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis associated with influenza A (H1N1) infection in a patient with chronic lymphocytic leukemia: an autopsy case report and review of the literature. Annals of Diagnostic Pathology. 2012 Dec;16(6):477-84. Epub. 2011 Jul 2. PMID: 21724431.
Merritt BY, Curry CV. Hemoglobin concentration. Staros EB, chief editor. Medscape Reference. WebMD LLC; 1994-2014. Available at https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/2085614-overview. Updated Aug. 2, 2012, and Feb. 12, 2014.
Merritt BY, Curry CV. Mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration. Wheeler TM, chief editor. Medscape Reference. WebMD LLC; 1994-2014. Available at https://emedicine. medscape.com/article/2054497-overview. Updated March 1, 2012, and Feb. 12, 2014.