Director, Toronto Lung Transplant Program;
Surgical Director, Ajmera Transplant Centre;
Surgical Director, UHN ECLS Program;
Canada Research Chair in Lung Transplantation
Senior Scientist; Toronto General Research Institute
Professor of Surgery, Division of Thoracic Surgery

Dr. Marcelo Cypel is the Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at the University Health Network (UHN) and Full Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is the Surgical Director of the Ajmera Transplant Center (one of top 3 largest transplant centers in North America performing more than 800 transplants/year) and the Surgical Director of the ECLS program at UHN. He received his MD in 1999 and completed his general surgery and thoracic surgery residency program in 2004. In 2005, he started his post-doctoral research fellowship at the Latner Thoracic Surgery Laboratory and currently serves as a Senior Scientist at UHN. During this time, he co-developed a new method of lung preservation and donor lung repair called Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP). This method is now used clinically in Toronto and in many other centers and has significantly increased the number of transplantable lungs. Dr. Cypel was a two-time awardee of the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Lung Transplantation from the Government of Canada, and he is the principal investigator in very innovative clinical trials, such as the use of uncontrolled donation after cardio-circulatory death for lung transplantation, 10C lung preservation, and in vivo lung perfusion with chemotherapy to treat patients with lung metastases. He is a Member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS), a Fellow from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC) and American College of Surgeons (FACS). His list of publications can be found at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=cypel%2Cmarcelo

Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and an Interventional Pulmonologist at Toronto General Hospital

Dr. Czarnecka-Kujawa is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto and an Interventional Pulmonologist at Toronto General Hospital, specializing in minimally invasive diagnosis and management of intrathoracic disease. As a Clinician Investigator in the Division of Respirology and Thoracic Surgery, her research focuses on health technology assessment in thoracic oncology, including decision modeling, administrative data analysis, and health-related quality of life. She is actively involved in international Interventional Pulmonology societies, contributes to interventional procedure training courses, and serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology.

Dr. Laura Donahoe is an Assistant Professor, Thoracic Surgery, at the University of Toronto. Her current clinical focus is on CTEPH, germ cell tumours, lung cancer, lung transplantation and extra-corporeal life support. She is the program director for the University of Toronto thoracic surgery residency program and fellowship director for the Toronto Lung Transplant Program surgical fellowship. Her current academic focus is on surgical education, particularly technical skill simulation and skill assessment for advanced learners.

Professor, Division of Thoracic Surgery & Department of Surgery
University of Toronto

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee is a Thoracic and Lung Transplant surgeon. He received his MD degree from the University of Toronto medical school followed by training in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto in Canada. He is currently Chief of Innovation at University Health Network (UHN) and is also Director of the Latner Thoracic Research Laboratories, Jackson Chair in Lung Transplant Research, Toronto Lung Transplant Program. He is Professor of Thoracic Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, and Vice Chair for Innovation in the Department of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is appointed as a Companion of the Order of Canada which is the highest civilian honour in the country.

Toronto General Hospital and Princess Margaret Cancer Centre
University Health Network, University of Toronto, Canada

Dr. Marc de Perrot is the Thoracic Oncology Site Lead at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, the Director of Clinical Research in the Division of Thoracic Surgery, the Director of the Mesothelioma and CTEPH Programs at UHN. He is Professor of Surgery, cross-appointed to the Department of Immunology at the University of Toronto, and hold the Canadian Mesothelioma Foundation Professor in Mesothelioma Research. Marc de Perrot is also a senior scientist at the Toronto General Hospital Research Institute. He is engaged in basic and translational research focused on the development of novel immunotherapy-based treatments. His research focuses on the integration of immunotherapy in multimodality therapy with a specific focus on the impact of oligofractionated fractionated radiation therapy and surgery on the immune system. His work led to the development of an innovative concept using a short course of sub-ablative hemithoracic radiation before surgery in mesothelioma (the SMART approach). In parallel, his research team is investigating the mechanisms underlying pulmonary hypertension in the setting of pulmonary embolism.

Associate Professor, department of surgery
University of Toronto Division of Thoracic Surgery

Dr. Andrew Pierre joined the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Toronto General Hospital in 2002. In 1993 he graduated from the University of Toronto Medical Faculty and then trained in the Gallie Course completing this in 1999. During that time, he spent two years in the Thoracic Surgical Laboratories obtaining his Masters of Science under the supervision of Dr. Shaf Keshavjee.

After completing General Surgery, he spent two years in the Thoracic Surgical Training Program at the University of Toronto (1999-2001). Dr. Pierre spent the following year at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center training in advanced minimally invasive surgical procedures as they apply to the lung, esophagus, and mediastinum (2001-2002).

He has been on staff at the Toronto General Hospital since 2002, and is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Toronto. His current areas of expertise include lung transplantation, minimally invasive surgery, and tracheal reconstruction. From 2011 – 2022 he has been the program director for the thoracic surgery residency training at the University of Toronto.

Dr. Waddell completed his term as the Pearson-Ginsberg Chair, Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Toronto and Head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at University Health Network/Toronto General Hospital in 2021.

He received numerous honours for his research work including the Governor General’s Gold Medal and the Royal College Prize for Resident Research. He completed General Surgery training in 1997 and his Thoracic Surgery fellowship in 1998. Following completion of clinical training he undertook an additional year of laboratory research as a McLaughlin Fellow at Imperial College in London, England. He was appointed as Assistant Professor in 2000, promoted to Associate Professor in 2004, and was promoted to Full Professor in 2010. He has earned numerous distinctions, including the Blalock Scholarship from the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, a CIHR New investigator Award, a CFI New Opportunities Fund Award, the George Armstrong Peters Prize in the Department of Surgery, a Wightman-Berris Individual Teaching Award, and was recognized with the R. Fraser Elliott Chair in Transplantation Research in 2005and the Richard and Heather Thomson Chair in Translational Research in2010. In 2011, he received the highest research honour from the University of Toronto Department of Surgery, the Lister Prize.

He runs a large lab with funding from the Thoracic Surgery Foundation for Research and Education, CIHR, Heart and Stroke, the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, the Roche Organ Transplantation Research Foundation, the PSI Foundation and the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. His laboratory focuses on alternative approaches to the chronic shortage of donor lungs, especially stem cell and regenerative medicine approaches to lung disease. He leads the lung group for the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine. His clinical interests include lung transplantation and lung volume reduction surgery, lung cancer and especially minimally invasive and robotic thoracic surgery.

Assistant Professor, Thoracic Surgery, University of Toronto
Staff Thoracic Surgeon, Toronto General Hospital

Dr. Wakeam attended medical school at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia and completed his postgraduate training in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto. While a general surgery resident, he pursued a master's degree in public health (MPH) from Harvard and a surgical outcomes research fellowship at the Brigham and Women's Hospital in the Center for Surgery and Public Health. During his general surgery residency, he was awarded the Resident Mentor Award. Following his general thoracic fellowship training, he undertook additional sub-specialty training in lung transplantation as a fellow in the Toronto Lung Transplant Program at Toronto General Hospital.

At UHN, he practices minimally invasive general thoracic surgery with a focus on esophageal, airway and complex general thoracic surgery. He is also a member in the Toronto lung transplant program. His research interests are in development of clinical trials in lung transplant and thoracic oncology, quality improvement.

Head, Division of Thoracic Surgery, University Health Network; FG Pearson – RJ Ginsberg Chair in Thoracic Surgery; William Coco Chair in Surgical Innovation for Lung Cancer Director of Endoscopy, University Health Network; Director, Interventional Thoracic Surgery Program, University Health Network; Professor and Chair, Division of Thoracic Surgery, University of Toronto

Dr. Kazuhiro Yasufuku is an internationally known Thoracic Surgeon with specific expertise in minimal invasive thoracic surgery and minimal invasive diagnostic procedures. He co-developed the Convex Probe Endobronchial Ultrasound and has successfully introduced the clinical application of EBUS-TBNA in Thoracic Oncology. His clinical interests include minimally invasive diagnostic and surgery for thoracic oncology and lung transplantation. He is the Head of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network. He is also Professor and Chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at University of Toronto. He holds the RFG Pearson – RJ Ginsberg Chair in Thoracic Surgery and William Coco Chair in Surgical Innovation for Lung Cancer. He serves as Director of Endoscopy and Director of the Interventional Thoracic Surgery Program at the University Health Network.

Dr. Yasufuku is very active in International Societies related to Thoracic Surgery and Interventional Pulmonology. He is Associate Editor for the Journal of Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology, Associate Editor for Respiration, STS Pearson’s General Thoracic Surgery E-book and the Editor in Chief for the World Association for Bronchology and Interventional Pulmonology Newsletter. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.