Under the direction of Dr. Michelle Josephson, the Section of Nephrology offers 12 months of specialized training in Transplant Nephrology. The goal of the program is to provide standardized transplant training to individuals who wish to lead renal transplant programs. The program was initially accredited in 1999 and reaccredited continuously since, most recently in 2022 by the American Society of Transplant (AST). In order to participate in the Nephrology Transplant program individuals must be Board eligible or Board certified nephrologists.
The educational program is comprised of clinical service, informal teaching, and more formalized classroom or conference teaching components. The clinical service time is divided between an inpatient and outpatient experience. 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 per month. 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 30 outpatient recipients over the course of the year and perform kidney biopsies and interpret them with the pathologist when appropriate. 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 an experience in 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 for residents and fellows, 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 not only by attending but also by giving a research seminar on their project and clinical renal grand rounds at the clinical forums.
The clinical program integrates with the didactic sessions in several ways. First, topics discussed at the teaching sessions are directly applicable to patient care. Second, 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 brief summary for the case 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., Associate Professor of Medicine
Yvonne El Kassis, MD, 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, MD, 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., Associate 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
Bryan Smith, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Ann Nguyen, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Jonathan Grinstein, M.D., Assistant Professor
Transplant Hepatology:
Michael Charlton, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Helen Te, M.D., Professor of Medicine
Andrew Aronsohn, M.D., Associate Professor of Medicine
Sonali Paul, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Anjana Pillai, M.D., Associate Professor of medicine
Transplant Pulmonary:
Kevin Tsui, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine
Transplant Pharmacy:
Brenna Kane, PharmD
Derek Owen, PharmD
Lisa Potter, PharmD
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., Assistant Professor, Loyola, 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 2023-2024
Dominique Tomacruz 2024-2025
Tomoki Tsukahara 2024-2025
For more information about the program, please contact:
Michelle Josephson, M.D.,
Director, Nephrology Transplant Fellowship
Section of Nephrology, MC 5100
The University of Chicago
5841 S. Maryland Avenue
Chicago, IL 60637
E-mail: mjosephs@bsd.uchicago.edu
How to Apply:
Download application PDF file: Transplant Fellow Application Form
After we receive your completed application including four supporting letters (letters must be mailed or emailed to fellowship coordinator by author or author’s administrative assistant), your file will be reviewed, and you will be notified regarding the advisability of an interview. Applicants must be eligible for certification in Nephrology by the American Board of Internal Medicine and must be licensed by the State of Illinois at the time they begin their fellowship.
Please contact the Nephrology Fellowship Coordinator Tishena Wilson for deadline information. The last date for interviewing varies year-to-year; however, earlier application submission is encouraged to allow adequate time for scheduling interviews.
Transplant Fellowship Coordinator
Section of Nephrology
The University of Chicago
5841 S. Maryland Avenue, MC5100
Chicago, Illinois 60637
E-mail: tishena@bsd.uchicago.edu