Journal of Surgery and Operative Care

Dr. Mark Laftavi began his training in transplantation as a Fellow in Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation in Lyon, France, under the tutelage of Dr. J.M. Dubernard in 1991.  Over the last 20 years, his clinical training in transplantation has been extensive. He continued his training in Pancreas Transplantation at the University of Minnesota with Dr. David Sutherland. Afterwards, he completed a Fellowship in Kidney, Pancreas and Liver transplantation at Rush Medical Center in Chicago and a Fellowship in Liver Transplantation at Mt. Sinai University in New York with Dr. Charles Miller. Supported by this extensive clinical experience, he joined the faculty at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia in July 1999 as an Assistant Professor of Surgery where he was able to make an immediate impact on the program. They were able to successfully transplant over one hundred kidneys in one year for the first time in the history of the institution. He participated in several multi-centers and single-center initiated clinical trials. This experience provided him the expertise required to conduct human investigational clinical trials.  It is with this background in both basic and clinical research, as well as a sound foundation in clinical transplantation, that he joined the Faculty of the University at Buffalo in July 2001 as an Assistant Professor of Surgery and Director of Pancreas Transplantation. In 2006, he was offered the position of Chief, Transplant Division at Temple University, Philadelphia. He did not accept this post because the Departmental Chief of Surgery at UB, the Vice President of Health Sciences at UB and the leadership of Kaleida Health all appealed him to remain in Buffalo at UB in order to maintain and expand the multi-organ transplant program at Buffalo General Hospital. At that time, he was promoted to Associate Professor of Surgery. 

In 2008, he was honored by the joint scientific committee of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) and American Society of Transplant Surgeon (ASTS) to serve as an abstract reviewer and moderator for the American Transplant Congress (ATC) in 2009, 2010 and 2011.