Objectives:

1. Understand changes in disease severity of patients with biliary atresia awaiting liver transplantation
2. Describe current risk factors affecting post-transplant patient and graft survival in biliary atresia and how these have evolved over time
3. Understand the factors that influence risk stratification for deceased technical variant grafts in patients with biliary atresia

Sarah A. Taylor's Biography:

Dr. Sarah Taylor is an Assistant Professor of Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at Northwestern’s Feinberg School of Medicine. She is a physician-scientist with an interest in pediatric liver disease and liver transplantation, and a research focus on the immune mechanism of neonatal liver disease. Her particular areas of research have included gestational alloimmune liver disease (GALD) and biliary atresia (BA). Through clinical research on outcomes in GALD and laboratory research on the mechanism of disease, her group has made a significant impact that has advanced the care of infants and mothers affected by GALD. Dr. Taylor's current translational research is directed at gaining a deeper understanding of the immune mechanism of BA, in particular the role of macrophages in disease progression after diagnosis with the ultimate goal to develop new treatment strategies. Clinically her area of focus is on pediatric liver disease and liver transplantation. She is passionate about improving care for our patients and seeks to use her research findings to improve patient outcomes.

Manuel Rodriguez-Davalos' Biography:

Manuel Rodriguez-Davalos, Medical Director, Living Donor Liver Transplantation Program, Intermountain Medical Center and Surgical Director, Pediatric Liver Transplantation, Primary Children's Hospital, Intermountain Healthcare. Dr. Rodriguez-Davalos has previously held positions in transplant at Yale University, Mount Sinai Medical Center and New York Medical College.

He is committed to innovation and collaboration to improve organ donation, transplantation and allocation systems to benefit those in need, especially children. He has particular interest in living donor transplants, organ allocation, and portal hypertension.

His current research involves living donor liver transplantation the use of partial grafts and extended criteria for donation in liver transplantation, and preservation techniques for decreasing ischemia-reperfusion injury.

He has served on numerous liver transplantation advisory boards and was a member at large of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS ) Liver Committee and as well as the pediatric transplantation committee. He is part of the publications committee with IPTA, Education committee of TTS, Associate editor of our journal “Transplantation”, Task force for liver allocation with SPLiT and oversees the International Liver Transplant Society Pediatric Liver Transplant Registry.

He received his medical degree from the Anahuac University. He did a year of research in portal hypertension and hepatobiliary surgery at the National Institutes of Health System in Mexico. He was a surgical intern at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, and completed his surgical training at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Scottsdale, AZ. He was a clinical fellow in multi-organ transplant surgery at Mount Sinai Medical Center.