Anna Valujskikh, PhD

Keynote Speaker, Lymphoablation in Organ Transplant Recipients: Lessons Learned from Mouse Models

Anna Valujskikh is a transplant immunologist at the Cleveland Clinic Department of Inflammation and Immunity. She received a PhD in Immunology from Moscow State University (Russia), did her postdoctoral training at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland OH, and started her independent lab at the Cleveland Clinic in 2006. Studies in Dr. Valujskikh’s lab use preclinical mouse transplant models to provide insights into adaptive immune responses leading to transplant rejection. Significant portion of group effort is focused on the mechanisms underlying antibody mediated rejection of vascularized allografts. Another series of projects investigates the aftermath of lymphoablative therapies in organ transplant recipients. Dr. Valujskikh’s research program has been continually funded since 2004 by NIH, the American Society of Transplantation, the American Heart Association, and Roche Organ Transplant Research Foundation. Dr. Valujskikh has authored over 90 original articles and reviews, and currently serves as an Associate Editor for Transplantation and a Section Editor for The Journal of Immunology. She devotes significant time and effort to training and mentoring students, research fellows, and junior faculty members.

Heather Badenoch

Plenary Speaker, The Donor’s Journey: Giving the Gift of Life and Supporting Recipients in Finding a Donor

Heather Badenoch says that the best decision she ever made was donating 22 percent of her liver to a child she’s never met.

She believes in the power of non-profits and purpose-driven organizations, and their ability to effect change. As the President and Communications Strategist at Village PR, Heather works with progressive health, substance use, housing, social service and environmental clients.

As an active volunteer in the transplant community, she mentors people who are becoming living liver donors. Heather also combines her living donor experience and communications skills to help patients on the transplant list find living donors by running their appeals pro bono.

Matthew Binnie, MD, FRCPC

Concurrent Speaker, Lung Transplant Candidacy

Dr Binnie is respirologist with the Toronto Lung Transplant Program and a staff physician with the Interstitial Lung Disease Program at Toronto General Hospital.

Chung-Wai Chow, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Concurrent Session Speaker, Role of the General Practitioner in Looking after a Lung Transplant Recipient

Dr. Chung-Wai Chow is a Professor of Medicine and Division Director of Respirology at the University of Toronto’s Faculty of Medicine. She also holds cross-appointments with the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Faculty of Applied Science & Engineering at the University of Toronto. She is the Pettit Chair in Respiratory Disease, a role that underscores her leadership and expertise in pulmonary medicine. Dr. Chow earned her MD in 1989 and PhD in Cell Physiology in 1999 from the University of Toronto. Following her doctoral studies, she completed a post-doctoral fellowship as an Alexander von Humboldt Fellow at the Max Planck Institute in Germany from 1999 to 2001. Her research is centered on advancing diagnostic methods in respiratory medicine, with a particular focus on respiratory oscillometry and the application of machine learning to enhance the early detection of lung disease. In the field of lung transplantation, Dr. Chow is recognized for her pioneering work using oscillometry to detect early signs of allograft dysfunction.

Candice Coghlan

Plenary Speaker, The Recipient’s Perspective on Living Donation and Supporting Donors

Candice Coghlan is the Education & Outreach Coordinator at the Centre for Living Organ Donation at UHN’s Ajmera Transplant Centre. After receiving a life-saving kidney transplant from her mother in 2009, she dedicated her career to supporting patients and families navigating chronic illness. Candice has worked with organizations such as the Kidney Foundation, Canadian Cancer Society, and Transplant Ambassador Program, and has collaborated with UCLA, Explore Transplant, Ontario Health and sits on the National Board of Directors for the Kidney Foundation to educate patients about transplant and modality options. She also hosts the "Living Transplant" podcast, sharing stories and insights from the transplant community. In 2021, Candice and her husband welcomed a healthy baby girl into the world.

Edward H. Cole, CM MSc MD FRCP(C)

Concurrent Speaker, Increasing access to Kidney Transplant for Highly Sensitized Patients: Kidney Paired Donation, Highly Sensitized Patient Registry and the Willing to Cross program

Dr. Cole received his Master of Science from the University of Toronto in 1973 and his M.D. from Memorial University of Newfoundland in 1975. He is a former Physician-in-Chief of UHN and previously served on the Board of Directors of The UHN Foundation. He is founder and past Chair of The Canadian Transplantation Society Kidney Working Group and past Chair of the Steering Committee for National Kidney Registries. In 2012, he received the Canadian Transplantation Society Lifetime Achievement Award. He received The Order of Canada in June, 2024.

Dr. Cole’s major research interests are in immunosuppressive drugs and clinical trials in renal transplantation with over 150 peer reviewed publications. He has been a member of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto since 1981 and is presently a staff nephrologist at The University Health Network and a Professor of Medicine at The University of Toronto .

Juan Duero Posada, MD, MSc, FRCPC

Concurrent Speaker, Advanced Heart Failure Referral Pathways

Dr. Duero Posada is a transplant cardiologist at the University Health Network and Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto. He holds a Masters in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety. He is the Program Director for the advanced heart failure and transplant fellowship training program.

Laura Goodliffe, MD, MPH, FRCPC

Concurrent Speaker, Common ER Problems: Heart Transplant Edition

Dr. Laura Goodliffe is a clinical fellow in the University of Toronto Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant program. She completed her cardiology and critical care training at McMaster University where she will be starting a clinical scholar position in Cardiac Critical Care this July.

Shahid Husain, MD, MS, FECMM, FRCP(Edin)

Plenary Speaker, Stewardship in Solid Organ Transplant

Dr. Shahid Husain, a distinguished figure in Internal Medicine, completed his residency at Cook County Hospital and pursued a three-year Infectious Diseases Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), specializing in Transplant Infectious Diseases. He further enhanced his expertise with a master’s degree in clinical Trials from the University of Pittsburgh. After his tenure as a faculty member at UPMC, Dr. Husain joined the University of Toronto in 2008.

An internationally acclaimed expert in Transplant Infectious Diseases, Dr. Husain has held the prestigious position of Chairman of the Infectious Diseases Council at the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation. His commitment to the field extends to his active involvement with the Canadian Society of Transplantation, where he currently chairs the Transplant Infectious Diseases group.

Abhijat Kitchlu, MD, MSc

Concurrent Speaker, Malignancy in Kidney Transplant Recipients – Screening and Aspects of Treatment

Dr. Abhijat Kitchlu completed medical school at Western University, followed by postgraduate training in internal medicine and nephrology at the University of Toronto. He then completed a Master's in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Toronto as part of the Clinician Scientist Training Program. He is currently a Staff Nephrologist and Director of the Onco-nephrology Program at the University Health Network in Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto. His research and clinical interest include onco-nephrology (co-existing cancer and kidney disease), with specific focus on toxicities of cancer therapies and cancer treatment options in the setting of chronic kidney disease. He also has interest and expertise in the use of population-level healthcare administrative data for clinical research.

Deepali Kumar, MD

Plenary Speaker, Vaccinations in Solid Organ Transplant

Dr. Deepali Kumar is a Professor of Medicine and Director of the Toronto Transplantation Institute, University of Toronto, as well as Director of the Ajmera Transplant Centre at the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada. She is a consultant in transplant infectious diseases and her research interests focus on infections in transplant recipients including the impact of viruses and vaccines in the transplant population. Dr. Kumar has published over 250 scientific papers and mentored many trainees. She has held leadership roles in the Canadian Society of Transplantation and is a Past-President of the American Society of Transplantation. Dr. Kumar is also Chair of the Canadian Standards Association Committee on Cells, Tissues, Organ Transplantation.

Gillian Lester

Concurrent Speaker, The role of Primary Care Provider in Post-heart Transplant Care

Gillian Lester is a Clinical Nurse Coordinator for the Heart Transplant Program at the Ajmera Transplant Center where she coordinates the clinical management of patients post heart transplant. Gillian is an RN who earned a Specialized Honours degree in Health Policy and Management as well as a BScN at York University. Prior to joining the Ajmera team, Gillian built a wealth of knowledge with over 20 years experience in the clinical, management and policy side of patient care with the majority dedicated to improving access to Primary Care in Canada and the United States.

Mar Miserachs, MD, PhD

Concurrent Speaker, Post-liver Transplant Pediatric Transition Clinic: Are We Ready?

Dr. Mar Miserachs is a Staff Physician in the Division of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and an Assistant Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Toronto. She completed her medical degree, paediatric residency and PhD in Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology at the Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona, Spain. Before moving to Toronto in 2014 to complete a dual fellowship in Paediatric Gastroenterology and Paediatric Hepatology and Liver Transplantation at SickKids, she was a Staff Paediatric Hepatologist in Hospital Universitari Vall d’Hebron in Barcelona, Spain, from 2011 to 2013.

Dr. Miserachs’ research activities focus on paediatric liver diseases and paediatric liver transplantation. Her research work is dedicated to improving the nutritional care of liver transplant recipients, and enhancing post-transplant ouctomes including quality of life and sucessful transitions from paediatric to adult health care.

Yas Moayedi, MD

Concurrent Session Speaker, What is New in Heart Transplantation?

Dr. Yas Moayedi is a Clinician Investigator at the University Health Network (UHN) and an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto since July 2021. Dr. Moayedi's career goal is to integrate precision-led care into clinical practice while leading global initiatives to improve outcomes for heart transplant patients. She has gained national and international recognition for her clinical and translational research in heart transplantation.

Funded by UHN’s Ajmera Transplant Centre, Dr. Moayedi's research on optimizing donor heart use has sparked nationwide discourse in Canada, with findings presented at the Canadian Cardiology Conference in 2024. Through her work with the Canadian Cardiac Transplant Network, she has developed tools, including a real-time dashboard and a donor assessment curriculum, designed to enhance donor heart utilization and transplant outcomes across Canada.

With over 120 peer-reviewed publications in leading journals such as Circulation, JHLT, Lancet Digital Health, and Circulation: Heart Failure, Dr. Moayedi's research is making significant contributions to advancing the field of heart transplantation.

Trevor Reichman, MD, PhD

Concurrent Speaker, Progress in Islet transplantation

Dr. Reichman completed his residency in General Surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center and subsequently performed a fellowship in Abdominal Organ Transplantation and HPB Surgery in Toronto between 2009 and 2011. Following his fellowship, Dr. Reichman moved to the Ochsner Medical Center in New Orleans, Louisiana where he assumed the role of Co-Director of Living Donor Liver Transplantation and Pediatric Liver Transplantation. He also started and was the Co-Director of the abdominal transplant fellowship at Ochsner. After 5 years, he relocated to Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia where he was the Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation and the Director of Pediatric Liver Transplantation. He returned to the Division of General Surgery and the UHN Transplant Program at TGH in 2019. He is the Surgical Director of the Pancreas Transplant and Islet Cell Programs and also directs the surgical fellowships for abdominal transplantation and HPB surgical oncology at the University of Toronto. His research interests include organ preservation, ex-vivo organ perfusion, and malignancies of the liver and pancreas.

Coleman Rotstein, MD, FRCPC, FACP, FIDSA, FECMM, FAMMI

Plenary Speaker, Cases in Solid Organ Transplant

Dr. Rotstein is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Toronto. He received his medical degree from the University of Calgary in 1976. Dr. Rotstein completed his specialty training in Internal Medicine and pursued further subspecialty training in Infectious Diseases & Immunology at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, South Carolina. He is currently the Interim Director of Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases at the University Health Network.

Dr. Rotstein has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers. His research interests have focused mainly on infections in cancer patients and other immunocompromised hosts (Contact information: Tel. 416-340-4800 X6663; E-mail: Coleman.Rotstein@uhn.ca).

Daniel Santa Mina, RKin, CEP, PhD

Concurrent Speaker, Managing Frailty - Pre and Post-Transplant

Dr. Daniel Santa Mina is a kinesiologist and clinical exercise physiologist. Dr. Santa Mina is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Kinesiology and Physical Education and cross-appointed to the Faculty of Medicine in the Department of Surgery. At the University Health Network in Toronto, Canada, he is a Clinician Investigator in the Department of Anesthesia and Pain Management and Director of Research and Programming for the Prehabilitation Program. His area of research focuses on surgical prehabilitation, rehabilitation, and exercise for people with chronic diseases. He as over 120 peer-reviewed publications and over $21MM in research funding.

Ciaran Scallan, MD, FRCPC

Concurrent Speaker, Late Complications of Lung Transplantation

Dr. Scallan is an assistant professor at the University of Toronto in the Division of Respirology. He is a transplant Respirologist with the University Health Network and Ajmera Transplant Center.

Dr. Scallan’s clinical interests include interstitial lung disease and lung transplantation. His research interests include the role of satellite care in lung transplantation and health related quality of life in patients with ILD.

Jeffrey Schiff, MD, FRCPC

Moderator, Kidney-Pancreas Transplant Session

Dr. Jeffrey Schiff is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. He completed his Internal Medicine and Nephrology residency at McGill University, followed by a Fellowship in Kidney and Kidney-Pancreas Transplantation at McGill University and l’Université de Montréal. He is the Medical Director of the Pancreas Transplant Program, Ajmera Transplant Centre, University Health Network. His clinical interests are in kidney and kidney-pancreas transplantation.

He is past President of the Canadian Society of Transplantation, and has worked on issues relating to transplant with Trillium Gift of Life Network, Canadian Blood Services and the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Nazia Selzner, MD

Keynote Speaker, Beyond the Gift: The Living Donor Journey and Long-Term Outcomes

Dr. Nazia Selzner is a Transplant Hepatologist and Medical Director of the Living Donor Liver Transplantation at the Ajmera Transplant Center, University Health Network, and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Nazia Selzner is a Scientist at the Institute for Medical Science (IMS) as well as at the Toronto General Research Institute (TGRI). Dr. Selzner graduated from Medical School at the University of Paris VII, France and completed her Gastroenterology training in France. She completed her PhD in 2003 at the University of Paris VII, France, after four years of research fellowship at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC and at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. Her research interest is in on mechanism of ischemia/reperfusion injury of the liver. Her clinical research is focused on access to liver transplantation and living donor liver transplantation. She is recipient of numerous national and international awards and has published extensively in the area of living organ donation, transplantation outcome and reperfusion injury. She is President-Elect of International Liver Transplantation Society (ILTS) and Executive Editor of Transplantation International.

Julie Statler, MSc, RD

Concurrent Speaker, Managing Frailty - The Nutrition Aspect

Julie is an inpatient dietitian in the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at TGH. She completed both her nutrition education and Master of Science in Health Promotion through the University of Western Ontario. In addition to liver transplant, she works with lung, heart and kidney/pancreas transplant patients. Julie’s role involves a lot of enteral nutrition for both pre- and post-transplant patients and texture-modified diets. In addition to nutrition, Julie is passionate about physical activity and teaches group fitness classes.

Pearl Tan, MD, FRCPC

Concurrent Session Speaker, Assessment and Management of Frailty Pre- and Post-Liver Transplant

Dr. Tan is a gastroenterologist and hepatologist at the University of Ottawa. She is the current gastroenterology program director as well as the hepatology education lead. Her practice includes general gastroenterogy and hepatology, as well as pre and post liver transplant care.

Ryosuke Yamamuro

Plenary Speaker, Cases in Solid Organ Transplant

Ryosuke Yamamuro is a Japan-board-certified specialist in Infectious Disease and general internal medicine with additional training in Rheumatology. Currently a Clinical Fellow in Transplant Infectious Diseases at the University of Toronto, he focuses on preventing and managing infections in immunosuppressed patients, especially solid organ-transplant and hematological stem cell transplant recipients.