Under the direction of Dr. Michelle Josephson, the Section of Nephrology offers 12 months of specialized training in Transplant Nephrology. The mission of the University of Chicago Transplant Nephrology Fellowship is to provide a rigorous, comprehensive educational experience that is standardized and prepares diverse and compassionate physicians to become independent, competent transplant nephrologists. The training is foundational for those who wish to lead renal transplant programs. The program was initially accredited in 1999 and reaccredited continuously since by the American Society of Transplant (AST). To participate in the Nephrology Transplant program individuals must be Board eligible or Board-certified nephrologists.
The educational program comprises clinical service, informal teaching, and more formalized classroom or conference teaching components. The clinical service time is divided between inpatient and outpatient experiences.
The inpatient portion of the fellow’s schedule includes six months on the inpatient kidney/kidney-pancreas service and exposure to extra-renal transplantation. During the inpatient rotation, the fellow meets jointly with the medical and surgical transplant teams each morning.
The remaining months of the training year will be spent in the outpatient clinic. While on the outpatient service, the fellow will attend three weekly post-transplant clinics and one or more pre-transplant evaluation clinics each week. Both recipient and living donor candidates are evaluated in the pre-transplant clinics. All renal transplant patients are managed in the post-transplant clinic for one year following transplantation.
The fellow is expected to care for at least thirty outpatient recipients over the course of the year and perform kidney biopsies and interpret them with the pathologist. The fellow communicates with the transplant team about active problems in patients under their care, at the weekly multidisciplinary clinical meetings.
Additional educational opportunities are as follows: weekly transplant pathology instruction, 3 months of research/scholarly activities, and exposure to the Transplant Immunology Lab. An optional 2 weeks in the pediatric transplant clinic can be arranged if desired. In compliance with the training requirements, the fellow will observe at least three organ procurement procedures and three transplants. The fellow will participate in one or more scholarly projects, which may include retrospective chart reviews, short clinical studies, or literature reviews. The fellow is allotted one month of vacation.
The didactic portion of the training includes informal discussions on transplant topics, weekly teaching sessions with the transplant surgeons, weekly transplant pathology sessions, mini-boot camps for common transplant issues, morbidity and mortality conferences, bi-monthly journal clubs, immunology series, and attendance at the fellowship teaching conferences which includes transplant topics. Each year the nephrology section invites nationally and internationally recognized researchers and clinicians to teach us about their areas. Fellows are expected to actively participate in the research seminar series. During the year, fellows will give a journal club, clinical conference, and a research seminar on their project.
The clinical program integrates with the didactic sessions. Topics discussed at the teaching sessions are directly applicable to patient care. Subject matter reviewed at the weekly surgical teaching session and the weekly transplant pathology sessions are based on cases taken from the clinical service. In the case of the latter conference this is a unique live case-based teaching conference, run with collaboration by the renal pathologists. It uses current transplant cases to teach pathology and post-transplant complications, transplant developments, and renal pathology. Fellows are responsible for preparing a summary of the cases discussed each week.
There are additional activities that fellows can electively participate in. These include (but are not limited to) attending courses at the graduate school of immunology, the pathology research seminar series, and the pediatrics transplant clinic. The fellow will have the opportunity to attend a national meeting which could be the American Transplant Congress meeting, National Kidney Foundation or Kidney Week, or other meeting of the fellow’s choice. Attendance at the American Society of Transplantation Fellow’s Symposium is encouraged.
Although this is not an ACGME approved program, transplant nephrology fellows are evaluated in accordance with the model set forth by the ACGME.
Training Faculty
Nephrology Transplant Faculty:
Michelle Josephson, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Surgery
Beatrice Concepcion, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Yvonne El Kassis, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Sambhavi Krishnamoorthy, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Yousuf Kyeso, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Patrick Cunningham, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Transplant Surgery:
Rolf Barth, M.D., Professor of Surgery
Piotr Witkowski, M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor of Surgery
Rosario Perez Gutierrez, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery
Arielle Cimeno, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery
Ashley Suah, M.D., Assistant Professor of Surgery
John LaMattina, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery
John Fung M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Surgery
Transplant Pathology:
Anthony Chang, M.D., Professor of Pathology
Kammi Henriksen, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Pathology
Transplant Cardiology:
Gene Kim, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Nitasha Sarswat, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Sara Kalantari, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Ann Nguyen, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Jonathan Grinstein, M.D., Associate ProfessorGene Kim, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Mark Belkin, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Bow Young Chung, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Anthony Kanelidis, M.D.: Assistant Professor of Medicine
Manreet Kanwar, M.D.: Professor of Medicine
Stanley Swat, M.D.: Assistant Professor of Medicine
Transplant Hepatology:
Helen Te, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Andrew Aronsohn, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Sonali Paul, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Anjana Pillai, M.D., Professor of Medicine
K. Gautham Reddy, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Mary E. Rinella, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Helen Te, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Transplant Pulmonary:
Rade Tomic M.D., Professor of Medicine
Scott Vasher, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Transplant Pharmacy:
Brenna Kane, PharmD
Joshua Vergin PharmD
Lisa Potter, PharmD
Sabrina Sanchez PharmD
Histocompatibility:
Yanping Huang M.D., PhD
Ruirui Ji M.D. PhD
Living Donor Advocate:
Milda Saunders, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Former and current Fellows:
May Chiu, M.D., Nephrologist, Concord, CA
Pradeep Kadambi, M.D., Professor University of Florida, Jacksonville, FLA
Rajiv Poduval, M.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Panoramic Health
Rajendra Baliga, M.D., Nephrologist, Tampa General Hospital, Tampa Bay, FL
Amandeep Khurana, M.D., Nephrologist, Scottsdale, AZ
Ignatius Tang, M.D., Professor, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Neerja Agrawal, M.D., Medical Director, Kidney Transplant Cleveland Clinic Florida, Weston, FL
Rebecca Rojas, M.D., Nephrologist, Dallas, TX
Bradford West, M.D., Nephrologist, Springfield, IL
Nidhi Aggarwal, M.D., Associate Professor, Baylor, Houston, TX
Amishi Desai, D.O., Associate Professor of Medicine, Northwestern, Chicago, IL
Hala Alshayeb, M.D., Associate Professor, Marshall University, Huntington, WV
Divya Jain, D.O., Assistant Professor, Loyola Maywood, IL
Abhijit Naik, M.D., MPH, Associate Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI
Talal Khairi, M.D., Nephrologist, Milwaukee, WI
Ling-Xin Chen, M.D., Assistant Professor, University of California, Davis, CA
Manpreet Samra, M.D., Entrapreneur, Chicago, IL
Nathalie Jean, M.D., Nephrologist, Spokane WA
Nevin Murthy, M.D., Nephrologist, Northshore, Evanston, IL
Zamir Zamir, M.D., Nephrologist, Kashmir India
Niveditha Girimaji, MBBS, General nephrology Fellow, University of Kansas
Song Liu, M.D. University of New Mexico
Mina Al Sayyab, M.D. 2023-2024, Assistant Professor, Albert Einstein, Bronx, New York
Dominique Tomacruz, M.D. 2024-2025,Nephrologist, Manilla, Philippines
Tomoki Tsukahara, M.D. 2024-2025, Nephrologist, Tokyo, Japan