CTC Faculty Research Interests

Michael Abecassis, MD, MBA

J. Roscoe Miller Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Microbiology-Immunology
Director, Liver Transplant Program
Chief, Division of Organ Transplantation
Founding Director, Comprehensive Transplant Center

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Abecassis' clinical interests include hepatobiliary surgery, liver transplantation, live-donor liver transplantation, and kidney transplantation. His research interests include molecular and virologic studies of cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation from latency in a mouse model of CMV, as well as biomarker discovery and functional genomics related to acute and chronic rejection, chronic kidney disease, and other definable phenotypes in human transplant recipients.  Dr. Abecassis is also directly involved in training of clinical and research fellows and oversees a training grant in transplantation science that includes both health services and outcomes research (NUTORC) and more basic science research programs in immunology and biomedical engineering (NUCTRIBE).

For more information on Dr. Abecassis, please click here.

Estella M. Alonso, MD

Medical Director, Liver Transplant Program, Lurie Children’s Hospital

Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Alonso’s research interests involve health outcomes following pediatric liver transplantation and acute liver failure including health-related quality of life and cognitive outcomes in pediatric liver transplant survivors, management of immunosuppression and maintenance of graft function in long-term survivors of liver transplantation, and the causes and treatment of acute liver failure.

For more information on Dr. Alonso, please click here.

Jessica K. Altman, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Altman’s research interests include aplastic anemia, leukemia, myelodysplastic syndrome, and myeloproliferative diseases.

For more information on Dr. Altman, please click here.

M. Javeed Ansari, MBBS

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Ansari is a Transplant Nephrologist, doing basic science and translational research in Transplantation Immunobiology. The overall goal of his research is to find ways to induce durable and reproducible immunological tolerance to the allograft. His laboratory has shown that the Novel Th17 cells play a critical role in allograft rejection, allograft vasculopathy and resistance to tolerance induction. Ongoing work in the laboratory is focused on further defining the mechanisms of development of Th17 alloimmunity and its regulation.

He serves as a full-time Faculty and Attending Physician in the Divisions of Nephrology and Organ Transplantation in Northwestern Memorial Hospital. In addition to providing specialist clinical care to Kidney Transplant patients, he teaches medical students, residents, clinical and research fellows in Nephrology and Transplantation Immunology.

A major area of interest in his laboratory is investigating the role of alloimmune responses in chronic allograft vasculopathy (CAV). He has recently demonstrated that the novel Th17 cells mediate accelerated allograft vasculopathy in T-bet deficient mice. Ongoing studies are focused on Th17 alloimmunity and the mechanisms of allograft rejection, development of CAV and resistance to transplantation tolerance induction both in mouse models and human studies involving cardiac transplant recipients. In addition, his laboratory is studying the mechanisms of induction of long-term allograft survival by targeting fucosyltransferases and leukocyte trafficking to the transplanted organ. 

For more information on Dr. Ansari, please click here.

Carl L. Backer, MD

Division Head, Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery; Surgical Director, Heart Transplant Program; A.C. Buehler Professor of Surgery; Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Baker’s interests include pediatric heart transplantation, congenital heart surgery, Berlin Heart, and tracheal surgery.

For more information on Dr. Backer, please click here.

Talia Baker, MD

Associate Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Baker’s interests include hepatobiliary surgery, hepatocellular cancer, laparoscopic liver surgery, liver transplantation, live-donor liver transplantation, live-donor kidney transplantation, kidney transplantation, and laparoscopic donor nephrectomy. 

For more information on Dr. Baker, please click here.

Terrence Barrett, MD

Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Microbiology-Immunology, and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

The laboratory of Dr. Terrence Barrett is interested in the functional differentiation of intestinal T cells. They suspect that in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), that enteric (gut-derived) antigen is routed to the mesenteric lymph nodes where it activates peripheral T cells. The activation event determines the subsequent cell migration pattern by regulating the profile of surface homing receptors expressed.

To address the factors that regulate the migration of intestinal T cells, Dr. Barrett’s laboratory has used an adoptive transfer model. Populations of antigen-specific transgenic (DO11.10) T cells are transferred into nontransgenic BALB/c mice. Cells are then activated in the periphery, which induces migration to the intestinal lamina propria. Our current studies show that the T helper type 1 (Th1) cytokine, IL-12 plays a critical role in directing intestinal T cell migration. These results have led to the investigation of the role of chemokines in intestinal T cell migration.

The CXC family of chemokines specifically attracts Th1 cells. Dr. Barrett’s lab suspects that the binding of chemokines (made in the intestine) regulates intestinal migration of specific subsets of activated T cells. They plan to examine how activation of T cells in the periphery upregulate CXC receptor expression and how recognition of antigen in the tissue helps to accentuate inflammation by attracting greater numbers of activated Th1 T cells. These studies are relevant to IBD where tissue destruction is mediated by intense infiltrates of Th1-type T cells.

For more information on Dr. Barrett, please click here.

Lee M. Bass, MD

Clinical Practice Director and Director of Endoscopy, Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Bass’ interests include gastroesophageal reflux, cholestatic liver disease, primary sclerosing cholangitis with inflammatory bowel disease, autoimmune liver disease, and liver transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Bass, please click here.

Amy E. Bobrowski, MD

Attending Physician, Kidney Diseases (Nephrology), Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Bobrowski’s research and clinical interests focus on improving long-term health outcomes in children with chronic kidney disease and after kidney transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Bobrowski, please click here.

Margret E. Bock, MD

Attending Physician, Kidney Diseases (Nephrology), Lurie Children’s Hospital
Instructor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Bock’s interests include pediatric kidney diseases and transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Bock, please click here.

Zeeshan Butt, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences, Surgery (Organ Transplantation), and the Institute for Healthcare Studies

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Butt is a licensed clinical psychologist and Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Social Sciences, Department of Surgery, and the Institute for Healthcare Studies at Northwestern University. In this position, his research focuses on the development and application of patient reported outcomes (PROs) in the postsurgical context, with specific emphasis on organ donation and transplantation. Dr. Butt co-chairs the Quality of Life Workgroup of the Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative (NUTORC) to foster multidisciplinary research and to provide research mentorship to postdoctoral fellows in this area. He also serves as Co-Chair for the Health-Related Quality of Life Group of the NIH A2ALL study, providing leadership in the assessment living liver donors’ well-being across 9 transplant centers. In addition to his work on NIH- and industry-funded grants and contracts, Dr. Butt is on the editorial board of the journal Assessment and section editor of the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12’s The Clinical Psychologist. He serves as the first Chair of the Early Career Professionals Council of APA Division 38 (Health Psychology) and was elected to the Executive Committee of the Allied Health Community of Practice of the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Butt is also a frequent ad hoc reviewer for a number of journals, conferences, and grant task forces to provide expertise in health psychology and psychometrics.

For more information on Dr. Butt, please click here.

Juan Carlos Caicedo, MD

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Research interests include outcomes after solid organ transplantation in Hispanics, health communication and literacy in solid organ transplantation, and quality of life in solid organ transplantation

For more information on Dr. Caicedo, please click here.

David Cella, PhD

Chair, Department of Medical Social Sciences

Professor in Medical Social Sciences; Center for Healthcare Studies, Institute for Public Health and Medicine; Preventive Medicine (Health and Biomedical Informatics); and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Professor, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, Northwestern University

Dr. Cella has several grants and contracts to study questions regarding quality of life measurement in clinical trials, cross-cultural equivalence of quality of life measurement, efficacy of psychosocial interventions in oncology, and medical outcomes research. He is principal investigator of the statistical coordinating center for the NIH Roadmap Initiative to build a Patient Reported Outcome Measurement Information System (PROMIS). He is also principal investigator of a contract to develop item banks for the clinical trials supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. He has over 500 publications in the area of quality of life measurement in clinical trials and clinical practice.

For more information on Dr. Cella, please click here.

Sonali Chaudhury, MD

Attending Physician, Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Chaudhury’s interests include pediatric hematology/oncology and stem cell transplantation, especially transplantation of pediatric hemaglobinopathies..

For more information on Dr. Chaudhury, please click here.

Richard A. Cohn, MD

Medical Director, Kidney Transplant Program, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Cohn’s interests involve pediatric nephrotic syndrome and kidney diseases and pediatric kidney transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Cohn, please click here.

Valeria C. Cohran, MD

Medical Director, Intestinal Rehabilitation and Transplantation; Attending Physician, Gastroenterology; Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Cohran’s interests include short bowel syndrome, bowel rehabilitation, and liver and intestinal transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Cohran, please click here.

Reggie E. Duerst, MD

Director, Stem Cell Transplant Program, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Duerst’s interests involve the application of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation to treat pediatric diseases such as hematologic and immunologic diseases and cancers, as well as expanding the indications for use of stem cell transplantation as cellular therapy for other diseases and organ dysfunction.

For more information on Dr. Duerst, please click here.

Steven Flamm, MD

Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Flamm’s interests include liver transplantation, hepatic disease, and viral hepatitis.

For more information on Dr. Flamm, please click here.

Olga Frankfurt, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Frankfurt’s research interests include hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, particularly umbilical cord blood stem cell transplantation for therapy of acute and chronic leukemias and myelodysplastic syndromes.

For more information on Dr. Frankfurt, please click here.

John Friedewald, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)
Director, Clinical Research Core

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Friedewald’s clinical interests include living donor kidney transplantation and paired kidney donation. His research interests include transplant genomics and biomarker development.

For more information on Dr. Friedewald, please click here.

Jonathan Fryer, MD

Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)
Associate Director, Liver Transplant Program
Program Director, General Surgery Residency

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Fryer’s interests include management of intestinal failure and intestinal transplantation, liver transplantation, and surgical education.

For more information on Dr. Fryer, please click here.

Lorenzo Gallon, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Medical Director, Transplant Nephrology

Director, Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Program

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gallon’s clinical interests include renal disease and kidney transplantation. His research interests include the role of immunosuppressive medications in modulation of the immune system, the genomics of chronic renal allograft rejection, and the development of new immunosuppressive medications.

For more information on Dr. Gallon, please click here.

Katheryn E. Gambetta, MD

Attending Physician, Cardiology, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gambetta’s interests include pediatric cardiology and heart transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Gambetta, please click here.

Daniel Ganger, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Ganger is the principal investigator at our site for a multicenter study of Acute Liver Failure, sponsored by the NIH. He has been working closely with our Radiology Department in the non invasive assessment of liver fibrosis with MR Elastography and Acoustic Resonance Force Impulse which is now performed routinely at Northwestern Memorial. He is also active in all viral hepatitis trials, pre and post transplant.

For more information on Dr. Ganger, please click here.

Mihai Gheorghiade, MD

Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gheorghiade’s interests include heart failure, ischemic heart disease, and organ transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Gheorghiade, please click here.

Elisa Gordon, PhD, MPH

Research Associate Professor of  Medical Humanities and Bioethics, Institute for Healthcare Studies, and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gordon’s research interests include: informed consent, ethics of organ transplantation and donation, determinants of disparities in access to health care and health outcomes, health literacy, self-care management, and qualitative & mixed methods research. Dr. Gordon has received federal grant funding from the NIDDK, NIAID, HRSA, and then-HCFA. Dr. Gordon currently serves on the Ethics Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the Board of the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH), and the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Gordon, please click here.

Leo I. Gordon, MD

Abby and John Friend Professor of Oncology Research, Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gordon’s research interests include novel signaling pathways in lymphoma, novel immune stimulatory strategies following stem cell transplant in lymphoma, and new approaches to the use of radioimmunotherapy in lymphoma.

For more information on Dr. Gordon, please click here.

Robert Andrew Gordon, MD

Medical Director, Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Assistance
Assistant Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Gordon’s interests include exercise physiology, acute coronary syndromes, heart failure, and heart transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Gordon, please click here.

Jeffrey G. Gossett, MD

Attending Physician, Cardiology, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr Gossett's research interests include pediatric cardiac transplantation and outcomes and cardiomyopathy/heart failure. This includes multi-center projects with the Pediatric Heart Transplant Study investigating rejection as well as the outcomes of cardiac transplantation in patients with plastic bronchitis. He is also involved in research related to pediatric interventional catheterization.

For more information on Dr. Gossett, please click here.

Kathleen L. Grady, PhD/APN

Administrative Director, Center for Heart Failure of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
Associate Professor of Surgery (Cardiac Surgery) and Medicine (Cardiology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Grady’s interests include heart failure, heart transplantation, ventricular assist devices, disease management programs, health-related quality of life, psychosocial outcomes, patient adherence with therapeutic regimens, patient decision-making, caregiver burden, health literacy, nutrition, and transition from pediatric to adult care.

For more information on Dr. Grady, please click here.

Bing Ho, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Nephrology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Ho’s clinical interests include kidney and pancreas transplantation, hypertension, renal disease, and transplant evaluation. His research interests include integrating multi-center data to monitor medication compliance and long-term kidney graft survival and creating a comprehensive transplant datamart in the Northwestern University Enterprise Data Warehouse.

For more information on Dr. Ho, please click here

Jane Holl, MD, MPH

Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine (Preventive Medicine)

Director, Center for Healthcare Studies, Institute for Public Health and Medicine

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Holl's primary research interests include patient safety and risk assessment in pediatrics, obstetrics, family planning and transplant surgery; healthcare quality indicators; health outcomes in children; the role of chronic stress in premature labor; the contribution of clinician and system factors in clinician-initiated deliveries; and the prevalence and severity of food allergy and health services.

For more information on Dr. Holl, please click here.

Mary Hummel, PhD

Research Associate Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation) and Microbiology-Immunology

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Cytomegalovirus is a virus which latently infects the majority of adults. Reactivation of latent virus occurs frequently, and in immunocompromised individuals, such as recipients of solid organ and bone marrow transplants, reactivation of CMV is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Using murine cytomegalovirus as a model, the primary focus of research in our lab is the elucidation of the molecular mechanisms by which the virus establishes latent infection and reactivates from latency in kidney transplants. 

For more information on Dr. Hummel, please click here.

Michael G. Ison, MD, MS

Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Michael Ison trained at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon and The University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. Following fellowship, he undertook additional training in Transplant Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital under the mentorship of Dr. Jay A. Fishman. He then joined the faculty of the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Organ Transplantation at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in 2005. He is currently the Medical Director of the Transplant & Immunocompromised Host Infectious Diseases Service, Northwestern University Comprehensive Transplant Center. 

Dr. Ison has continued to be a significant researcher in the field of transplant infections. His primary focus is on respiratory viruses in this unique population. He was a lead investigator for studies to determine how to prevent and treat influenza in immunocompromised patients. Additionally, he is considered an expert in adenovirus infections in immunosuppressed patients and has contributed to the design of several treatment studies for adenovirus. He has also participated in a number of studies to optimize the management of CMV, BK virus, and fungal infections in transplant recipients. More recently, Dr. Ison has also been heavily involved in describing the epidemiology of and optimizing the mitigation of risk for donor-derived disease transmission among organ recipients.

Additionally, Dr. Ison has been a leader in the Transplant Infectious Diseases arena. He is a past member of the Executive Committee of the American Society for Transplantation’s Transplant Infectious Diseases Study Group, a past member of the AST Infectious Diseases Community of Practice Executive Committee and founding chair of the Organ Procurement & Transplant Network/United Network for Organ Sharing’s ad hoc Disease Transmission Advisory Committee from 2006 – 2010. He has been a member and is the current chair of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Advisory Committee on Blood Safety and Availability. He is the Infectious Diseases Workgroup leader for the WHO/CNT/SOHO V&S Project NOTIFY and is currently a member of the executive committee of the Bologna Initiative on Global Vigilance and Surveillance. He recently was elected to the Board of Directors of UNOS and the American Society of Transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Ison, please click here.

Sally Jensen, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Medical Social Sciences and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

During my graduate training in clinical health psychology at the University of Florida, I developed a strong interest in biopsychosocial relationships in the context of medical illness and women’s health, with a particular focus on the interrelationships between psychosocial functioning, neuroendocrine/immune functioning, and physical symptom onset in oncologic surgery. During my post-doctoral fellowship, I expanded my interest in psychosocial functioning and physical symptom onset in the peri-operative period to include a focus on patient-reported measures of surgical outcome in addition to more traditional clinical indices of surgical outcome. This line of research is grounded in the hope that a better understanding of the relationships between psychosocial functioning and surgical outcome may help to identify optimal surgical candidates, as well as lead to the development of future interventions to improve psychosocial functioning and surgical outcome among those individuals who may be at risk for poorer surgical outcomes.

As my interest in surgical outcome research has unfolded, I have developed an interest in exploring the potential relationships between psychosocial functioning and physical symptoms among other populations, including candidates for transplant surgery.  In addition, as medical technology advances, I am interested in examining these relationships in the context of medical decision-making with respect to innovative surgical options, such as reconstructive transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Jensen, please click here.

Chunfa (Charles) Jie, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Member, Genomics Core at the Center for Genetic Medicine

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Jie’s research interests include bioinformatics and genomics.

For more information on Dr. Jie, please click here.

Ben Z. Katz, MD

Attending Physician, Infectious Disease; Medical Director, Travel Immunization Clinic; Co-Medical Director, Adoption Clinic; Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Katz’s primary research interests involve the pathophysiology of viral infections in immunocompromised versus normal hosts.

For more information on Dr. Katz, please click here.

Steven J. Kindel, MD

Attending Physician, Cardiology, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Kindel’s interests involve pediatric cardiology, heart failure, and heart transplantation and congenital heart disease.

For more information on Dr. Kindel, please click here.

Morris Kletzel, MD, MBA

Meryl Suzanne Weiss Endowed Professor and Division Head, Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplantation; Director of the Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders; Lurie Children’s Hospital

Pediatric Director, Hematopoietic Stem Cell Processing Laboratory, Northwestern Memorial Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Kletzel’s interests include stem cell transplantation, minimal residual disease in leukemia and neuroblastoma, stem cell differentiation, and research ethics.

For more information on Dr. Kletzel, please click here.

Sean Koppe, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Koppe’s clinical interests include hepatic disease, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, viral hepatitis, and liver transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Koppe, please click here.

Laura Kulik, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Radiology, and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Kulik’s clinical interests include treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma and liver transplantation. Her research interests include radiologic treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma.

For more information on Dr. Kulik, please click here.

Daniela Ladner, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation) and Institute for Healthcare Studies
Director, Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative (NUTORC)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Ladner’s primary research presently focuses on the examination of safety vulnerabilities in kidney and liver transplantation. She has received a Dixon Innovation Award to study safety in kidney transplantation and is R01 funded to examine safety in living donor liver transplantation. She also studies geographic inequity in kidney organ allocation in close collaboration with NU Industrial Engineers and serves as the Director of the Northwestern University Transplant Outcomes Research Collaborative (NUTORC) which reaches across campus to bring together disparate expertise in order to address pertinent questions in transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Ladner, please click here.

Joseph Leventhal, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)
Director, Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Programs
Director, Transplant Surgery Fellowship Program

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Leventhal’s clinical interests include kidney and pancreas transplantation, living donor kidney transplantation, laparoscopic surgery, vascular access, and desensitization for kidney transplant recipients. His research interests include the development of cell-based therapies to achieve tolerance induction in solid organ transplant recipients.

For more information on Dr. Leventhal, please click here.

Josh Levitsky, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Director, Transplant Hepatology Fellowship Program

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Levitsky’s interests include proteogenomics, immunogenetics, immunological tolerance, and liver transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Levitsky, please click here.

Xue Feng Liu, PhD

Research Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Liu's research interests lie in epigenetic mechanisms underlying regulation of cytomegalovirus (CMV) gene expression during establishment of  latency and reactivation from latency.

For more information on Dr. Liu, please click here.

Xunrong Luo, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Nephrology), Microbiology-Immunology, and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Luo’s research interests include tolerance mechanisms in experimental transplant models including murine allogeneic and xenogeneic islet transplantation, and murine cardiac and kidney transplantation. Areas of ongoing research focuses include: mechanisms of antigen-specific regulatory T cells and myeloid derived suppressor cells in allogeneic tolerance induction and maintenance; role of B cells in xenogeneic tolerance induction and maintenance; tolerance delivery using nanoparticles; and genomic and proteomic tolerance signatures.

For more information on Dr. Luo, please click here.

S. Chris Malaisrie, MD

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Cardiac Surgery), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

Dr. Malaisrie’s clinical interests include cardiopulmonary transplantation, percutaneous aortic valve replacement, minimally-invasive aortic valve replacement, aortic valve repair, valve-sparing aortic root replacement, aortic arch repair, endovascular stent-grafts, and thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm repair. His research interests include Marfan syndrome, bicuspid aortic valve, and thoracic aortic aneurysm.

For more information on Dr. Malaisrie, please click here.

James Mathew, PhD

Research Associate Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation) and Microbiology-Immunology

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Mathew’s research for the past 20 years has been in the areas of immune responsiveness and tolerance induction in clinical organ transplantation. These studies have resulted in more than 200 publications including book chapters, review articles and editorials, original papers and presentations. The major thrust of these has been on the immunological effects of donor bone marrow cell (DBMC) and donor hematopoetic stem cell (DHSC) infusions in organ transplant patients using in vitro and ex vivo culture systems. It has been observed that using multiple assays for donor specific unresponsiveness may identify potentially tolerant recipients who may be candidates for immunosuppressive drug (IS) withdrawal. Recent studies have also assessed the role of CD4+CD25High FoxP3+ regulatory T cells as potential tolerance inducers in kidney and liver transplant patients, as well as the differential susceptibility these cells to various immunosuppressive drugs used in clinical transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Mathew, please click here.

Patrick M. McCarthy, MD

Director, Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
Chief, Division of Cardiac Surgery
Heller-Sacks Professor of Surgery (Cardiac Surgery), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. McCarthy’s interests include valve repair and replacement, atrial fibrillation surgery, Maze procedure, aortic aneurysm, coronary artery bypass surgery, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy/myectomy, and minimally invasive surgery.

For more information on Dr. McCarthy, please click here.

Edwin C. McGee, Jr., MD

Surgical Director, Heart Transplantation and Mechanical Assistance
Associate Professor of Surgery (Cardiac Surgery), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. McGee’s interests include aortic surgery, complex cardiac reoperative surgery, coronary bypass surgery, heart transplantation, valve repair and replacement, and ventricular assist devices.

For more information on Dr. McGee, please click here.

Jayesh Mehta, MD

Professor of Medicine (Hematology-Oncology)
Director, Stem Cell Transplant Program
Deputy Director, Comprehensive Transplant Program

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Mehta's interests include the treatment of amyloidosis, leukemia, multiple myeloma, and plasma cell disorders with bone marrow transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Mehta, please click here.

Joshua Miller, MD

Research Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)
Director, Immune Monitoring Core

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

My research involves the substantiation that bone marrow derived cells have an immunoregulatory capacity that can influence the induction of clinical tolerance (the elimination of maintenance immunosuppressive drugs). This includes the development of sophisticated monitoring techniques to detect the immune status of the recipient and the appearance of these regulatory cells in the bone marrow, peripheral blood, and transplanted organ in the recipient. I am currently conducting a clinical trial at Northwestern in 20 such HLA-identical living donor kidney transplant recipients of donor stem cells, along with the transplanted organ, and following the recipient for the detection of these immune regulatory functions.

For more information on Dr. Miller, please click here.

Elfriede Pahl, MD

Medical Director, Heart Transplant Program and Marvin E. Wodika Professor of Cardiology, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Pahl’s interests include Kawasaki Disease,  pediatric cardiology and heart transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Pahl, please click here.

Anat Roitberg-Tambur, DMD, PhD

Research Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Director, HLA Laboratory

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Tambur’s research interests include transplant immunology, HLA antibodies and HLA epitopes, antigen processing and presentation, and humoral immunity.

For more information on Dr. Roitberg-Tambur, please click here.

Hyde M. Russell, MD

Attending Physician, Cardiovascular-Thoracic Surgery, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Russell’s interests include congenital heart disease, complex reoperations in congenital heart surgery, heart transplantation, valve repair and replacement, and coronary artery surgery.  He has an active basic science research interest in pediatric mechanical circulatory support as a bridge to heart transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Russell, please click here.

Mi-Young Ryee, PhD

Pediatric Psychologist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Instructor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Ryee’s interests involve child and adolescent psychology including coping with chronic illness, transplantation, pain management, and anxiety.

For more information on Dr. Ryee, please click here.

Jennifer Schneiderman, MD, MS

Attending Physician, Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Schneiderman’s interests include stem cell transplantation, reduced intensity conditioning regimens, neuroblastoma, and apheresis.

For more information on Dr. Schneiderman, please click here.

Sanjiv J. Shah, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Cardiology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine)

Dr. Shah’s interests include cardiac assessment, diastolic heart failure, echocardiography, and pulmonary hypertension.

For more information on Dr. Shah, please click here.

Seema Singhal, MD

Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Singhal’s interests include regenerative medicine, multiple myeloma and stem cell transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Singhal, please click here.

Anton Skaro, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Skaro’s research interests include patient outcomes in organ donation and transplantation, healthcare costs and reimbursement issues resulting from donation and transplantation, improving donor and recipient decision making, and cost-effective long-term health outcomes.

For more information on Dr. Skaro, please click here.

Lisa Sorensen, PhD

Pediatric Neuropsychologist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Sorensen’s clinical interests include brain tumor and other cancers, brain injury, solid organ transplant, lupus, encephalitis, epilepsy, sickle cell, stroke, genetic disorders, as well as learning disability and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Her research is primarily on neurocognitive outcomes in patients with liver disease and liver transplant.

For more information on Dr. Sorensen, please click here.

Valentina Stosor, MD

Associate Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Stosor’s interests involve clinical microbiology and infectious disease. In particular, she is interested in cytomegalovirus and transplant infectious disease.

For more information on Dr. Stosor, please click here.

Riccardo A. Superina, MD

Head, Transplant Surgery; Co-Director, Siragusa Transplantation Center; Surgical Director, Kidney and Liver Transplant Programs; and Robert E. Schneider Chair in Transplantation; Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Surgery, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Superina’s interests involve liver transplantation including living donor, reduced size, and split liver; hepatobiliary surgery; biliary atresia; Rex shunt; organ donation; intestinal transplantation; kidney transplantation including living donor; and liver cancer.

For more information on Dr. Superina, please click here.

William T. Tse, MD, PhD

Attending Physician, Hematology, Oncology and Stem Cell Transplant, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Tse’s basic research interests involve the delineation of the mechanism of cell fate determination in blood and marrow stem cells and the development of novel cell-based therapy based on this knowledge. He recently discovered that blood stem cells maintain a balance between self-renewal and maturation through asymmetric cell division and we are developing methods to manipulate this process and expand blood stem cells. His clinical research interest is on the application of an effective but less toxic method of stem cell transplant to treat children with severe inborn immunological defects. Using this method, he has achieved a cure rate of 100% in these patients, if they are diagnosed and treated early.

For more information on Dr. Tse, please click here.

Constance Weil, PhD

Pediatric Psychologist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Weil’s interests involve child and adolescent psychology including coping with chronic illness, adjustments to allergies and asthma, cardiac transplantation, child development, developmental assessment, and behavioral problems in young children.

For more information on Dr. Weil, please click here.

Jill Weissberg-Benchell, PhD

Pediatric Psychologist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Weissberg-Benchell’s interests involve child and adolescent psychology including children with diabetes, solid organ transplantation, coping and adaptation to chronic illness, and family management of chronic illness.  Dr. Weissberg-Benchell helped to create a transplant-specific measure of health related quality of life. She is actively involved in research aimed at improving patient and family adaptation and coping to chronic diseases, and has obtained NIH funding for her work. She is involved in both clinical and research programs aimed at facilitating the transition from pediatric to adult medical care, and has authored articles and a book on the topic.

For more information on Dr. Weissberg-Benchell, please click here.

Jason Wertheim, MD, PhD

Assistant Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

My clinical interests include abdominal organ transplantation and living donation surgery. My research interests focus on developing tissue engineering and regenerative medicine based approaches for renal and hepatic replacement therapies.

For more information on Dr. Wertheim, please click here.

Peter F. Whitington, MD

Director, Siragusa Transplantation Center and Sally Burnett Searle Professor of Pediatrics and Transplantation, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine (Gastroenterology and Hepatology), Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Whitington's research involves the study of immune mechanisms of pediatric liver diseases including biliary atresia and idiopathic neonatal hepatitis, as well as mechanisms of fibrogenesis in genetic cholestasis, neonatal hepatitis, fatty liver disease, and hepatic allografts.

For more information on Dr. Whitington, please click here.

Jane N. Winter, MD

Professor of Medicine (Hematology/Oncology)

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Winter’s research interests include Hodgkin’s disease, leukemia, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

For more information on Dr. Winter, please click here.

Donna Woods, PhD

Research Associate Professor, Center for Healthcare Studies, Institute for Public Health and Medicine

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Woods’ research interests include the identification of patient safety risks, assessment of the effectiveness of regulatory guidelines, organizational workflow optimization and safety, and the development of safety metrics for performance measurements.

For more information on Dr. Woods, please click here.

Clyde W. Yancy, MD

Chief, Division of Cardiology
Associate Director, Clinical Programs, Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute
Magerstadt Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) and Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Yancy’s interests include heart failure, heart transplantation, and patient outcomes following heart failure and transplantation.

For more information on Dr. Yancy, please click here.

Frank Zelko, PhD

Pediatric Neuorpsychologist, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Lurie Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Zelko’s interests involve neuropsychological assessment in epilepsy, head injury, brain tumor, leukemia, systemic disease, organ transplantation, genetic disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and learning disabilities.

For more information on Dr. Zelko, please click here.

Zheng (Jenny) Zhang, MD

Research Associate Professor of Surgery (Organ Transplantation)
Director, Microsurgery Research Core

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Zhang's primary research interests involve the role of TLR signaling in organ transplantation and the identification of key molecular pathways leading to allograft rejection following transplantation in small animal models.

For more information on Dr. Zhang, please click here.

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