Donate Life Month Tipsheet: Experts From the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center
Immunologists and Transplant Surgeons From the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and Smidt Heart Institute Share Leading-Edge Research and Advances in Patient Care During April, Donate Life Month
Throughout the month of April—Donate Life Month—experts from Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and the Smidt Heart Institute are available for interviews on issues related to transplantation, immunology and organ donation.
“During Donate Life Month, we honor the generous gift that organ donors give by raising awareness about the vital role that organ transplantation plays in saving lives every day,” said Irene Kim, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and a Cedars-Sinai professor of Surgery.
Kim, a prominent leader in liver, kidney and pediatric organ transplantation, also serves as a councilor for the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and as a member of the Board of Directors for United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), the nonprofit organization that manages the U.S. transplant system.
Additional experts available for interviews include:
· Transplant Immunology: Stanley Jordan, MD, director of the Human Leukocyte Antigen and Transplant Immunology Laboratory and professor of Medicine. Jordan is a pioneering researcher who has advanced the field of organ transplantation by discovering a way to expand the donor pool by reducing the risk of organ rejection.
· Pancreas Transplants: Todd Brennan, MD, director of the Pancreas Transplant Program and professor of Surgery.
· COVID-19-Related Lung Transplants: Joanna Chikwe, MD, chair of the Department of Cardiac Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute and professor of Cardiac Surgery.
· Minimally Invasive and Robotic Lung Transplants: Pedro Catarino, MD, director of Aortic Surgery in the Smidt Heart Institute and professor of Cardiac Surgery, and Dominick Megna, MD, director of the Lung Transplant Program and assistant professor of Cardiac Surgery.
· Heart Transplants: Jon Kobashigawa, MD, director of the Heart Transplant Program, and Fardad Esmailian, MD, surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program and professor of Surgery. Over the past five years combined, the Smidt Heart Institute transplant team has completed more heart transplants than any other U.S. medical center.
· Liver Transplants: Nicholas Nissen, MD, director of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery, and Alexander Kuo, MD, professor of Medicine and medical director of the Liver Transplant Program, who led the liver transplant team in completing a record-breaking 113 liver transplants last year.
· Fatty Liver Disease: Mazen Noureddin, MD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Fatty Liver Program and associate professor of Medicine.
Together, the Cedars-Sinai Comprehensive Transplant Center and Smidt Heart Institute completed 573 solid organ transplants in 2021, surpassing 2020’s count of 529 and achieving a new record for the medical center.
Read more in Discoveries: Meet Transplant Surgery Trailblazer Irene Kim, MD