Jason Hawksworth, MD

Dr. Ratner is Professor of Surgery and Director of Renal and Pancreatic Transplantation at Columbia University. Prior to joining the faculty at Columbia, Dr. Ratner was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, and served as the Chief of Solid Organ Transplantation at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Dr. Ratner was responsible for dramatic growth of the kidney transplant program at CUIMC. He also established the pancreas transplant program, and the Kidney Autotransplant Program. He introduced robotic surgery to our kidney transplant program. Access to organ transplantation has been Dr. Ratner's major academic interest. Dr. Ratner has been a leading innovator in transplantation for over two decades. In 1993, he performed the world's first dual renal transplant. In 1995 (with Dr. Louis Kavoussi) he performed the first laparoscopic donor nephrectomy, and set the stage for its widespread adoption, which resulted in a profound increase in living donor kidney transplantation. Dr. Ratner has made significant contributions in overcoming immunologic incompatibilities that prohibited transplantation. He devised the plasmapheresis/IVIg protocol for alloantibody desensitization in 1998. In 2001, Dr. Ratner orchestrated the second paired-kidney exchange in the U.S. Subsequently, he arranged the first paired kidney exchanges in both Pennsylvania and New York. More recently Dr. Ratner has been a leading proponent of including compatible donor/recipient pairs in kidney exchanges. And, his more contemporary work has looked at the organizational and regulatory barriers to access to care. All of these strategies have increased organ availability and access to transplantation. Additionally, he has made important contributions to improve living donor safety. For his work, Dr. Ratner has received numerous awards and honors. And, he has been invited to speak and operate at various venues around the world. Dr. Ratner has authored or co-authored over 240 peer-reviewed publications, and has been a federally funded investigator. His publications have been cited over 20,000 times. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the LiveOnNY (formerly the New York Organ Donor Network), and has served on numerous national committees including the Board of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN). He recently completed a term as the President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and previously served as that Society's Treasurer.Dr. Ratner originally hails from Brooklyn, NY. He received his undergraduate education at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He received his M.D. from Hahnemann University. His general surgery training was obtained at Long Island Jewish Medical Center. He completed a Fellowship in Transplantation Surgery and Immunology at Washington University. In 2011 Dr. Ratner completed a Master of Public Health with a focus on health care policy, administration and management.

Dr. Llore is an Assistant Professor of Surgery at Columbia University and an Attending Transplant Surgeon at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr. Llore received her undergraduate degree from Fordham University and her medical degree from New York University School of Medicine. She completed general surgery residency at Georgetown University Hospital and abdominal transplant/hepatobiliary fellowship training at New York Presbyterian Columbia and Weill Cornell. She received additional training on the immune response after a liver transplant and xenotransplantation with Dr. Megan Sykes at Columbia Center for Translational Immunology (CCTI). She is board-certified in general surgery and received specialty training in abdominal transplant and hepatobiliary surgery. Her practice interests focus on the surgical management of children and adults with liver and bile duct disease, including benign and malignant liver tumors. She practices minimally invasive surgical techniques in liver surgery to shorten recovery times and reduce post operative discomfort. Dr. Llore is interested in surgical education and is the Associate Program Director for the ASTS certified surgical fellowship program.

Anuraag S. Parikh, MD is a fellowship trained head and neck surgeon scientist, with clinical expertise in the full breadth of head and neck surgical oncology and microvascular reconstruction. Dr. Parikh graduated from the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons, where he was elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. He completed residency in Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Harvard University/Massachusetts Eye and Ear. During residency, he completed an additional two year postdoctoral research fellowship under an NIH T32 grant and was awarded the Jeffrey P. Harris, MD PhD Research Award for his work in tumor heterogeneity in head and neck cancer. He then completed fellowship in advanced head and neck surgical oncology and microvascular reconstruction at the Ohio State University/James Cancer Center. Dr. Parikh’s clinical interests include the treatment of benign and malignant conditions of the head and neck, including tumors of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, sinonasal tract, skull base, skin, salivary glands, thyroid, and parathyroid. Dr. Parikh specializes in transoral robotic surgery (TORS) for tumors of the oropharynx and microvascular free tissue transfer for reconstruction of the head and neck. Dr. Parikh also conducts basic and translational research aimed at understanding the role of tumor heterogeneity on treatment outcomes in head and neck cancer (HNSCC) and salivary adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC). His work utilizes novel techniques such as single cell sequencing, multispectral imaging, and 3D organoid modeling to model HNSCC and ACC tumors at the level of individual cells. Dr. Parikh is the author of many highly impactful peer-reviewed articles, including publications in Cell and Nature Biotechnology, and he has regularly presented his research at national meetings.