The Transplant Nephrology Fellowship Program at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medicine (NYP-WCM) provides advanced education and training to the next generation of transplant nephrologists. Our kidney transplant program has a long and distinguished history having performed the very first kidney transplant in the New York tri-state region in October 1963. We perform more than 200 kidney transplants annually with excellent patient and graft outcomes and to date have carried out more than 5000 kidney transplants. In addition to the robust kidney transplantation program, kidney and pancreas, pancreas alone, liver, and liver and kidney transplants are performed at our center.
U.S. News & World Report consistently ranked our Nephrology program in the top 5 in the last five years. Our Department of Transplantation Medicine was founded in 1994 with Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran as the founding Chief. Our training program inculcates the trainees with knowledge of immunology, immunogenetics, histocompatibility testing, pharmacology and management of immunosuppression, as well as management of early and late complications post kidney-transplantation. In close collaboration with the transplant surgeons, the program offers critical knowledge of surgical techniques and associated complications.
Our Department of Transplantation is comprised of prominent clinicians and scientists committed to the training the next generation of physicians. We have an ideal balance of clinical medicine and basic, translational and clinical research. Our faculty consists of 7 transplant nephrologists, 3 kidney transplant surgeons, 2 kidney pathologists, and 6 histocompatibility experts. Our program is unique in that two of our clinical faculty, Drs. Manikkam Suthanthiran and Darshana Dadhania, have expertise in histocompatibility testing and are New York State licensed Directors of Immunogenetics and Transplantation Laboratory. Our graduates of transplant nephrology fellowship are academic faculty at prestigious institutions such as University of Michigan, University of Chicago, University of California at San Francisco and NYP/Weill Cornell Medicine.
We have a highly productive research laboratory with continuous NIH funding for more than three decades. Our Gene Expression Profiling (GEM) laboratory under the leadership of Dr. Manikkam Suthanthiran has pioneered the development of noninvasive biomarkers to ascertain kidney status and has functioned as the Molecular Core for multi-center NIH sponsored Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation. Our faculty has active research projects focused on developing mRNA/miRNA profiles predictive of acute rejection in kidney allografts, allograft fibrosis, diagnosis and prognostication of BK virus nephropathy and studies of alterations in the gut microbiome in kidney allograft recipients.
