AST AudioConferences

Donald E. Hricik, MD
Division Chief and Professor
Nephrology & Hypertension
Director of Transplantation Services
UH Case Medical Center
Case Western Reserve
University
Cleveland, OH

Donald E. Hricik is Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio, where he also serves as Medical Director of the Transplantation Service at the University Hospitals of Cleveland.
He received his medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, DC and completed his internship at the New England Medical Center in Boston, MA, where he also pursued clinical and research fellowships in nephrology.

Dr. Hricik’s current research interests include approaches to reduce the side effects of immunosuppressive regimens in renal transplantation and immunologic monitoring of renal transplant recipients.

Allan D. Kirk, MD, PhD, FACS
Professor of Surgery and Pediatrics
Scientific Director Emory Transplant Center
Emory University
Atlanta, GA

Dr. Kirk received his MD at Duke University School of Medicine and his PhD in Immunology from the Duke University Graduate School. He is a practicing transplant surgeon, Scientific Director for the Emory Transplant Center and Vice Chairman of Research for the Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine. His interests as they relate to this lecture are the relationships between T cell depletion and the plasticity of the repopulating immune system.

An internationally recognized surgical scientist and authority on transplant immunology, Dr. Kirk has conducted ground breaking translational research in an effort to achieve immune tolerance of organ and tissue transplants without the use of toxic immunosuppressant drugs.

Kimberly A. Brown, MD
Chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology
Fellowship Director
Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, MI

Dr. Brown received her undergraduate BS degree from the University of Michigan in 1981. She attended medical school at Wayne State University from 1981 to 1985. Following medical school, Dr. Brown completed her residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Gastroenterology at the University of Michigan Medical Center in 1992. During her residency, she served as Chief Medical Resident from 1988 to 1989. She joined Henry Ford Hospital in 1994 as Medical Director of Liver Transplantation, a position in which she served until 2003 she became Division Chief at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology and Transplant Hepatology.

Dr. Brown serves on multiple boards including the Henry Ford Hospital Board of Governors, the Henry Ford Health System Network Board, the Medical Advisory Board of the Michigan Chapter of the American Liver Foundation, The American Board of Internal Medicine and the Henry Ford Hospital Transplant Institute Council of Advisors. She is a reviewer for several journals and has served as an abstract reviewer for DDW, AASLD and AST. Dr. Brown’s research interest is in viral hepatitis and recurrent disease following liver transplantation.

She has mentored over 60 fellows in Gastroenterology and Hepatology and was one of the first members on the ABIM Board for Advanced Hepatology and Transplantation. She serves on various committees for the AASLD and the AST and is delighted to now serve on the Board of Directors for the AST.

Akinlolu O. Ojo, MD, PhD
Professor of Internal Medicine and the Florence E. Bingham Research Professor in
Nephrology
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI

Dr. Ojo received his medical education from the University of Lagos, Nigeria and received postgraduate degrees from the University of Alabama, Birmingham; and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He completed residency in internal medicine and was Chief Resident at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Dr. Ojo completed his fellowship in Nephrology and clinical research training at the University of Michigan. Dr. Ojo’s clinical and research interests include hypertension, chronic kidney disease and organ transplantation with a special focus on the African American population.

Scott M. Palmer, MD, MHS, FCCP
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, NC

Dr. Palmer is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Palmer received his MD at Duke University. He completed his internship and fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at Duke. In addition, Dr. Palmer has completed advanced research training and received a Master's degree in Health Sciences Research from Duke. He has led numerous clinical and basic research studies in lung transplantation.

Dr. Palmer has served as medical director of the Duke Lung Transplant Program, currently serves as Chair of the American Thoracic Society Clinical Problems Program Committee, and leads a large multidisciplinary transplant research group.

His research interests include cytomegaloviral infection, innate immunity in transplant, and bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome. His honors include the AST Clinical Science Investigator Award in 2008.

Jon A. Kobashigawa, MD
Clinical Professor of Medicine
Chief, Division of Clinical
Faculty Medicine
Medical Director
UCLA Heart Transplant Program
Los Angeles, CA

Dr. Kobashigawa is the Medical Director of the UCLA Heart Transplant Program and Chief for the Division of Clinical Faculty Medicine at the UCLA Medical Center. He received his MD at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, NY with internship and residency in Internal Medicine, and a fellowship in Cardiology at the UCLA Medical Center. His interests include antibody-mediated rejection, statins, intravascular ultrasound, immunosuppression clinical trials, and exercise physiology of the denervated donor heart in heart transplant patients.

Dr. Kobashigawa is well published and recognized internationally as a leader in the heart transplant field. He has chaired several multi-national immunosuppression clinical trials and sits on several editorial boards. He has also served as the past President for the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation and as the past Chairman for the American College of Cardiology Committee on Heart Failure and Transplantation.

Shirish Huprikar, MD
Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases Program
Associate Professor, Mount Sinai School of Medicine
New York, NY

Dr. Huprikar received his MD at Northwestern University Medical School before Internal Medicine Residency and Infectious Diseases Fellowship training at Mount Sinai. Since 2003, he has been the Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Program which is dedicated to clinical, academic and educational efforts focused on the prevention and management of infectious diseases in solid organ and bone marrow transplant recipients as well as other immunocompromised hosts.

His research interests include solid organ transplantation in HIV patients, prevention and management of CMV disease, invasive fungal infections, and infections in cirrhotics awaiting liver transplantation



		Daniel C. Brennan, MD, FACP Professor of Medicine Washington University School of Medicine Director, Transplant Nephrology Barnes-Jewish Hospital St. Louis, MO	Dr. Brennan received his Medical Degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa with a Fellowship in Nephrology, Transplant Immunology & Transplantation, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, 1991 and a Fellowship in Nephrology, Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, 1992. His areas of clinical interest include kidney transplant, CMV disease in renal transplantation, pharmacoeconomics, and islet transplantation.

		Milagros D. Samaniego, MD FACP, FASN Medical Director, Kidney and Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Programs Associate Professor Department of Internal Medicine Division of Nephrology University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI	Dr. (Millie) Samaniego is an Associate Professor in the Division of Nephrology in the Department of Internal Medicine. Dr. Samaniego joined the faculty at the University of Michigan as the Medical Director of the Kidney and Simultaneous Kidney/Pancreas programs in February 2009. Dr. Samaniego received her medical degree from the University of Panama School of Medicine in the Republic of Panama. She completed her post-graduate training at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. She is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine. Her clinical interests include antibody-mediated rejection, management of highly sensitized and high-risk kidney transplant recipients, desensitization protocols and ABO incompatible transplantation.

		John Gill, MD, MS Associate Professor of Medicine University of British Columbia Division of Nephrology St. Paul’s Hospital Vancouver, Canada	Dr. Gill obtained his MD from the University of British Columbia (U.B.C.) in 1995. He completed his specialty training in internal medicine at the University of Western Ontario (1995-1998) and his sub-specialty training in nephrology at U.B.C. He then completed a clinical research fellowship at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, MA. During this time he also completed a Masters degree in clinical outcomes research at Tufts University. He joined the nephrology division at St. Paul’s Hospital, University of British Columbia in July 2002. Dr. Gill is President of the Canadian Organ Replacement Register. He is involved in clinical outcomes research in kidney transplant recipients, and is an associate editor of the American Journal of Transplantation.

		Marwan S. Abouljoud, MD,FACS Director, Henry Ford Transplant Institute, Benson Ford Chair Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, MI	Dr. Abouljoud earned his medical degree from the American University of Beirut. His post-graduate training included the University of Michigan Hospital in general surgery, Henry Ford Hospital in general surgery, University of Alabama in Birmingham in transplant surgery and Baylor University Medical Center in transplant surgery. His clinical and special medical interests include, liver and kidney transplantation, including split liver transplantation, and surgery for liver cancer. His research interests include minimally invasive hepatic surgery, outcomes after transplantation for hepatocellular cancer, outcomes after transplantation for cryptogenic cirrhosis and NASH, surgeon burnout and governance.