Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation was launched in 1996. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of organ transplantation is divided into 18 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Didier A. MandelbrotDidier A. MandelbrotDr Mandelbrot is currently Medical Director of Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation at UW Health and Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine. He was an undergraduate at Harvard College, medical student at the University of Pennsylvania, resident in Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, and renal fellow at Brigham and Women's Hospital. He has a background in basic transplant immunology and a longstanding interest in the diagnosis and treatment of solid organ rejection. He has participated in numerous single and multi-center clinical trials in kidney transplantation, and has published almost 200 papers and chapters. He has made important contributions on the role of donor-specific antibodies in the context of kidney transplantation, pancreas transplantation and simultaneous liver-kidney transplantation. He also has a particular interest in living kidney donation, and has been active in describing and improving practices in the US. He was co-PI of the NIH-funded Kidney Donor Outcomes Cohort study and recently finished serving as Chair of the American Society of Transplantation's Living Donor Community of Practice. He is currently a member of the United Network of Organ Sharing Medical and Professional Standards Committee, the American Transplant Congress Program Planning Committee, and the Medical Board of the National Kidney Registry. He is an Associate Editor of Clinical Transplantation. Maria SiemionowMaria SiemionowDr Siemionow, a world-renowned scientist and microsurgeon, is Professor of Orthopedics and Director of Microsurgery Research at The University of Illinois at Chicago. She specializes in microsurgery, hand surgery, peripheral nerve surgery, transplantation, and microsurgery research. She is pioneering development of new technology for minimal immunosuppression in transplantation and enhancement of nerve and muscle regeneration. She served as a President of the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation, President of the International Hand and Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Society and President of the American Society for Peripheral Nerve. She is a member of the academic-industry team, Warrior Restoration Consortium, focusing on development of clinical therapies and new technologies for wounded soldiers as part of the second phase of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine (AFIRM II). She has received numerous honors, including high praise as Principal Investigator for the world's first IRB approval for Facial Allograft Transplantation protocol; in 2008, she led the team that performed the first near-total face transplantation in the United States. Dr Siemionow has over 330 scientific publications. She has edited three plastic surgery textbooks, two popular science books, and has contributed to over 120 published book chapters. Dr Siemionow received numerous awards including the Polish Order of Merit (2009), the Commander's Cross Polonia Restituta Award from the President of Poland (2009), the Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Research Award from the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (2010); the 2011 American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Board of Trustees Special Achievement Award and Casimir Funk National Science Award (2013). In 2014 she received the Great Immigrants Award from the Carnegie Foundation of New York. In 2016 Dr Siemionow was awarded the Heritage Award granted by the Polish American Congress. In 2019 she received Golden Otis Award. Prior to her UIC appointment, she was Director of Plastic Surgery Research and Head of Microsurgical Training for Cleveland Clinic's Department of Plastic Surgery. Jeffery A. KahnJeffery A. KahnDr Jeffrey A. Kahn completed his undergraduate training at the University at Albany, State University of New York, medical school training at the State University of New York, Upstate Medical University and internal medicine residency at Emory University. He then went on to fellowship training in gastroenterology at the University of Southern California and transplant hepatology training at Cedars Sinai-Sinai Medical Center. He has been the medical director of the Keck School of Medicine of USC Liver Transplant Program since 2011, with a special interest in living donor liver transplantation and transfusion-free liver transplantation. His research interests include liver transplant waitlist disparities, liver transplant outcomes and has ongoing translational research related to occult hepatitis C infection.