Transplantation Faculty
Executive Director, Emory Transplant Center
Thomas C. Pearson, MD, DPhil
– Livingston Professor of Surgery, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Director, Kidney Transplant Program, Emory University
– Co-Director, Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Program, Emory University
– Affiliate Scientist, Division of Pathobiology and Immunobiology, Emory National Primate Research Center
Dr. Pearson and his long-time collaborator Dr. Chris Larsen played a pivotal role in developing the class of immunosuppressive drugs known as costimulation blockers. In 1996, Dr. Larsen, Dr. Pearson, and others published an article in Nature that provided evidence that blocking one of the immune signals required for organ rejection (costimulatory blockage) at the time of transplantation promoted long-term survival of organ allografts in rodents. This finding was rapidly translated to primates at the Emory National Primate Research Center and later to humans.
In March 2010, Dr. Pearson, Dr. Larsen, and their colleagues published the data from two international phase III clinical trials of belatacept in the American Journal of Transplantation, concluding that the then-experimental drug could prevent graft rejection in kidney transplant recipients while better preserving kidney function and maintaining lower blood pressure and cholesterol when compared to standard immunosuppressive medications. In June 2011, the FDA approved belatacept in the form of the drug Nulojix for the prevention of graft rejection after kidney transplants. The drug is now being tested in clinical trials for kidney transplant, liver transplant, and pancreatic islet transplant.
In addition to being an eminent scientist, Dr. Pearson is also a highly accomplished transplant surgeon and has been involved in such milestones as the performance of Georgia's first islet transplant.
Faculty
I. Raul Badell, MD
– Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Surgical Director, Living Donor Kidney Program, Emory Transplant Center
– Director, Kidney Paired Donor Exchange Program, Emory Transplant Center
Sulemon Chaudhry, MD
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Octav Cristea, MD, FRCSC
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Mandy L. Ford, PhD
– Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Scientific Director, Emory Transplant Center
– Training Faculty, Graduate Program in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis, Graduate Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Emory University
Jessica Harding, PhD
– Primary Appointment: Assistant Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Secondary Appointment: Assistant Professor, Division of Hospital Medicine, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
Marwan Kazimi, MD
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Steven C. Kim, MD
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
William Kitchens, Jr., MD, PhD
– Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil
– Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Affiliate Scientist, Emory National Primate Research Center
Denise J. Lo, MD
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Joseph F. Magliocca, MD
– Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Surgical Director, Adult and Pediatric Liver Transplantation, Emory University Hospital, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Ahmed Nassar, MD
– Assistant Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Kenneth A. Newell, MD, PhD
– Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Vice Chair of Faculty Affairs, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Program Director, Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Ronald F. Parsons, MD
– Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Surgical Director, Pancreas Transplantation
Rachel E. Patzer, PhD, MPH
– Associate Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Director, Emory Center for Health Services Research, Emory Departments of Medicine & Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
– Director, Transplant Health Services and Outcomes Research Program, Emory University School of Medicine
Joint Appointments
– Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health
– Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, Emory University School of Medicine
Katherine Ross-Driscoll, PhD, MPH
– Assistant Professor, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
Paul L. Tso, MD
– Associate Professor of Surgery, Division of Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine
