Members of the ECMC conduct interviews with members of the transplant community about current events, career development and other relevant topics.
Early Career Committee Member Nicola De Stefano Interviews Nicholas Gilbo and Fotios Sampaziotis on biliary complications after liver transplantation
Dr. Nicola De Stefano is a General Surgery Resident at the Liver Transplant Unit in Turin, Italy. He graduated in Medicine at the University of Turin in 2019 and during his medical degree he attended the MD-PhD program under the supervision of Prof. Renato Romagnoli. His research and peer-review activity focus on liver transplantation, machine perfusion technology, and stem cell-based therapies for organ regeneration, with a particular interest in extracellular vesicles and liver graft reconditioning. He was awarded the “Leonardo Da Vinci Transplant Research Innovation Award” at the European Society for Organ Transplantation Congress (Milan, 2021) and he has recently spent a surgical training period at the Abdominal Transplant Center of Leuven (Belgium) under the supervision of Prof. Jacques Pirenne and Prof. Diethard Monbaliu. Since 2023 he joined the Early Career Members Committee of the Transplantation Society.
Nicholas Gilbo is a transplant surgeon and researcher with a passion for exploring novel strategies for organ preservation and regenerative medicine. In 2008, he graduated magna cum laude in Medicine from the University of Turin (Italy). He underwent a residency in general surgery from 2009 to 2015, during which he spent 18 months at the Abdominal Transplantation Centre in Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), where he gained extensive experience in transplantation surgery and large animal models of liver transplantation.
In 2015, he began his doctoral study at KU Leuven, which he completed in 2019. During this time, he conducted research on the transplantation of high-risk livers. His thesis, entitled "TRANSPLANTATION OF HIGH-RISK LIVERS. Redefining high risk and exploring new concept of organ assessment and treatment," earned him the title of Doctor in Biomedical Science in June 2021 after he successfully defended it. His research focused on developing a porcine model of liver normothermic machine perfusion for the study of liver cell biology and function during dynamic preservation. Additionally, he participated in the COPE randomized study on liver NMP and the DHOPE study in DCD liver transplantation, which allowed him to acquire considerable knowledge and expertise with novel dynamic liver preservation strategies.
From 2019 to 2021, he underwent a surgical fellowship at the University Hospitals of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium), which provided him with further experience in organ procurement and abdominal organ transplantation. He was also a post-doctoral research fellow at KU Leuven in 2022. Currently, he works as a consultant transplant surgeon at the University Hospital of Liège (ULiège, Belgium), where he also holds a PI position in the CREDEC lab. In this position, he continues to conduct research on liver preservation, dynamic strategies for organ preservation, and regenerative medicine with stem cells and organoids.
TBD
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