Scientific Advisory Council

Jörg C. Gerlach, MD, PhD

Professor, Department of Surgery, Professor, Department of Bioengineering, McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Jörg Gerlach, M.D., Ph.D. joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh in 2003 as a Professor in the Department of Surgery. He holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Bioengineering, Swanson School of Engineering. Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, he held an appointment at the Charité, Medical Faculty of the Berlin Universities, Berlin, Germany. Dr. Gerlach earned an MD with a background in surgery and transplantation medicine from the Freie Universität Berlin, a PhD in Experimental Surgery from Humboldt Universität, Berlin, and a PhD in Bioengineering from Strathclyde University, Glasgow, Scotland. Dr. Gerlach is internationally recognized for his work in developing biotechnology methods and bioreactor technology for primary and stem cells. He directs the interdisciplinary Bioreactor Group in the McGowan Institute and his biomedical research projects have focused on artificial organs, hybrid organs, bio-artificial systems, and systems enabling progenitor cell transplantation.

Rashmin C. Savani, MB, CH.B.

Chief, Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine, Professor Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas

Rashmin Savani obtained his medical degree from the University of Sheffield. He undertook internships in Internal Medicine, General Surgery and Obstetrics & Gynecology. He was a pediatric resident at Duke University Medical Center and a fellow in Neonatology and in Pulmonary Biology at Cincinnati Children’s Medical Center. He then moved to the University of Manitoba and Winnipeg Children’s Hospital where he was an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Section of Neonatology. He undertook further postgraduate training in Cell & Molecular Biology at the Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology after which he had an independent laboratory at the Institute. He was recruited to the University of Pennsylvania and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and rose to the rank of Associate Professor with Tenure. Dr. Savani moved from CHOP/PENN in 2006 to become Professor of Pediatrics at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. He was awarded the William Buchanan Chair in Pediatrics in 2006 and is currently Division Chief of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine and Associate Director of the Center for Pulmonary & Vascular Biology in the Department of Pediatrics. His research focus has been on lung injury and development, including inflammation and angiogenesis.

John M. Vierling, MD, FACP, FAASLD, AGAF

Professor of Medicine and Surgery, Division of Abdominal Transplantation and Section of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, Chief of Hepatology, Director, Advanced Liver Therapies, Director of Baylor Liver Health, Baylor College of Medicine

Dr. John M. Vierling earned undergraduate and medical degrees from Stanford University. Following training at the University of Rochester, NIH and University of California, San Francisco, Dr. Vierling held academic appointments at the University of Colorado and UCLA. Dr. Vierling joined the faculty at Baylor in 2005. He is board certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases and the American Gastroenterological Association. He directs Advanced Liver Therapies, a clinical research unit devoted to hepatobiliary diseases and his research staff are conducting phase 1-3 studies of diagnostics and therapies in chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, primary biliary cholangitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, anti-fibrotic therapy to prevent cirrhosis, hepatic encephalopathy, and measurements of hepatocellular function. Dr. Vierling’s primary research interests are the immunopathogenic mechanisms involved in hepatobiliary injury caused by autoimmunity, alloimmunity, viral infection and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. By emphasizing a "laboratory bench to bedside" philosophy, Dr. Vierling has also been active in the design and execution of clinical therapeutic trials of antiviral agents for treatment of hepatitis B and C infections in patients before and after liver transplantation, and trials of immunosuppressive drugs in liver transplantation and autoimmune liver diseases.

Ulrich H. von Andrian, MD

Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology at Harvard Medical School

Uli Von Andrian M.D. received his medical degree from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Germany, where he also conducted doctorate research on blood-brain barrier dysfunction following brain injury. In 1989, he joined the La Jolla Institute for Experimental Medicine and UCSD as a postdoctoral fellow. His postdoctoral research involved the development of intravital microscopy techniques that led to the discovery of the multi-step leukocyte adhesion cascade in vivo. After a second postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University, Dr. von Andrian joined the Faculty of Harvard Medical School in 1994. He was appointed to his current position in 2006. His scientific research is focused on the regulation and function of immune cells in health and disease. His laboratory employs intravital microscopy techniques combined with other experimental approaches to study the migration, communication, differentiation and function of immune cells in living animals.