Research Highlights

Trevor Nydam, MD

Trevor Nydam, MD is a Professor of Surgery and Interim Chief of transplant at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and Anshutz Medical Campus. During his surgical residency, Dr. Nydam completed an NIH Basic Science research fellowship in post-injury inflammation. Following his clinical transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Colorado training under Dr. Igal Kam, his research has focused on methods to address the donor shortage. His basic and translational research focused on limiting the damage to the renal tubule during cold storage of the kidney graft. This work was supported by the Faculty Development Grant from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.

Bruce Kaplan, M.D.

Bruce Kaplan, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine and Surgery and the Medical and Scientific Director of CCTCARE. Kaplan is an internationally renowned researcher and clinician in organ transplantation. He has over 400 peer-reviewed papers and over $20 million in extramural grants. He also has written the definitive textbook on immune pharmacology and has held three endowed chairs.

James Pomposelli, MD, PhD

James Pomposelli, MD, Ph.D., is the Professor of Surgery at the University of Colorado. He also serves as Chair of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Liver and Intestine Committee that directs organ allocation policy for the United States.

Jesse Schold, Ph.D.

Jesse Schold, Ph.D., M.Stat., M.Ed. is a Professor of Surgery and Epidemiology at the University of Colorado, Anschutz Medical Campus. He is the Director of the Center for Outcomes Research and Policy and Associate Vice Chair of Policy and Outcomes for the Department of Surgery. He received his undergraduate training at Emory University, two Masters degrees from North Carolina State University, and a Doctorate from the University of Florida.

Lisa Forman, M.D.

Lisa Forman, M.D. received her medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and continued on to complete her residency training and Gastroenterology fellowship. During her fellowship, she also obtained a Masters in Clinical Epidemiology.

Christene Huang, PhD

Dr. Huang is currently Professor of Surgery within the Division of Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery and the Division of Transplant Surgery at the University of Colorado, Denver, Anschutz Medical Campus.

Whitney Jackson, MD

Whitney Jackson, MD, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado and the medical director of living donor liver transplantation at UCHealth. She obtained her medical degree from Sidney Kimmel Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, completed Internal Medicine Residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Gastroenterology and Hepatology Fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic where she served as Chief Fellow during her final year, followed by Transplant Hepatology Fellowship at the New York Presbyterian Hospital of Columbia and Cornell Universities in New York City.

Michael Kriss, M.D.

Michael Kriss, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine and transplant hepatologist within our liver transplant program. He is the Physician Informaticist for the Colorado Center for Transplantation Care, Research and Education (CCTCARE) and Associate Program Director of our Transplant Hepatology fellowship. He completed his internal medicine training at Northwestern/McGaw Medical Center where he also served as Chief Medical Resident.

James Burton, Jr., M.D.

James R. Burton, Jr., M.D. is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora, CO. He serves as the section head of Hepatology and the Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at Colorado Center for Transplantation Care, Research and Education (CCTCARE).

Yanik Bababekov, M.D.

Yanik Bababekov MD, MPH is a transplant and hepatobiliary surgeon at University of Colorado-Anschutz Medical Campus and works together with a diverse team of clinicians and researchers to improve care for patients. In effort to mitigate the severe organ shortage, he has obtained funding to optimize the use of donor organs and improve post-transplant outcomes.

JP Norvell, M.D.

JP Norvell, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology at the University of Colorado Anschutz Campus in Aurora, CO. He has served as a Hepatology attending at the Colorado Center for Transplantation Care, Research, and Education (CCTCARE) since 2017. He serves as the Program Director of the Transplant Hepatology Fellowship since 2018, and is also the Medical Director of the inpatient Transplant Hepatology Unit at the University of Colorado Hospital since 2019.

Avash Kalra, M.D.

Avash Kalra, M.D. is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and serves as Director of Liver Transplant Outreach and Strategic Development. In this role, he has helped to establish outreach clinics in Albuquerque NM and Billings MT, and his interests include medical education and addressing healthcare disparities.

Megan Adams, M.D., F.A.C.S.

Megan Adams, MD, FACS is an adult and pediatric transplant surgeon. She is the surgical director of pediatric living donor transplantation and pediatric clinical research at Children’s Hospital of Colorado. She did her undergraduate training at the University of Michigan and medical school at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Tom Pshak, M.D.

Tom Pshak, M.D. earned dual bachelor's degrees in Mathematics and Economics from Illinois State University. He then worked as a senior management consultant for 6 years, specializing in Mathematical and Financial modeling before changing career paths into medicine. He attended medical school at the University of Colorado where he also completed his surgical residency and transplant fellowship. He is uniquely trained as a board-certified Urologist and Liver, Kidney, and Pancreas transplant surgeon.

Kendra Conzen, MD

Kendra Conzen, MD, FACS, is an Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Division of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. She serves as the Program Director for the Transplant Surgery Fellowship and Surgical Director of Quality Improvement for the Division. Her clinical practice focuses on multi-organ transplantation, living donor surgery, and hepatobiliary procedures (open and robotic). She is dedicated to providing excellent and compassionate care for patients with liver, biliary and kidney disease.

Jon Rice, M.D.

Jon Rice, M.D. is an Assistant Professor at the School of Medicine. After completing medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin, Rice relocated to Colorado for an internal medicine residency. It was during this time that he discovered his passion for hepatology and transplants. He continued his education at the University of Colorado, where he completed his gastroenterology and transplant hepatology fellowships before joining the faculty.

James Cooper, M.D.

James Cooper, M.D. is a Professor of Medicine within the Division of renal diseases and hypertension and serves as medical director of the kidney and kidney/pancreas transplant programs. His research interests include the clinical impact of donor-specific antibody development on post-kidney transplant outcomes and immunosuppression exposure and its impact on antibody development.

Zhirui Wang, DVM, PhD

Zhirui Wang, DVM, PhD is an Associate Professor of Surgery in Department of Surgery, University of Colorado Denver Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Wang’s expertise is using a unique diphtheria toxin resistant yeast Pichia pastoris expression system as a platform to develop diphtheria toxin-based recombinant immunotoxins for treatment of cancers and autoimmune diseases as well as transplantation tolerance induction.

Elizabeth Pomfret, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S.

Elizabeth Anne Pomfret, M.D., Ph.D., F.A.C.S. is a Professor of Surgery and the at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She is also

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