CLINICAL RESEARCH TEAM
Lindsay Basto RN, MSN
Manager
Clinical Research
Alexandra Grange
RN, BSN
Manager,
Islet Transplant Program
Lindsay has been leading clinical research related to islet and kidney transplantation since 2012. Promoted to the position of the Clinical Research Manager to supervise the execution of research projects related to solid organ and islet transplantation in our Transplant Institute.
Ali has dedicated her nursing career to caring for transplant patients since 2007. She began at Columbia University Medical Center, providing post-transplant care to patients undergoing kidney, pancreas, liver, and lung transplants. After moving to Chicago she joined the University of Chicago Transplant Institute and served as a pre-transplant coordinator for kidney and pancreas transplant patients and later as a living kidney and liver donor transplant nurse coordinator. As lead kidney transplant nurse, Ali led process optimization initiatives and provided clinical expertise to the team. Currently, Ali is a member of the Islet Cell Transplant team, managing patient participation in clinical studies and collaborating on process development and improvement.plant patients participating in islet transplantation studies.
Irena Kovacevic RN, BSN
Clinical Research Nurse
Minelly Escobedo
Director of Operations,
Quality and Compliance
Irena is a nursing graduate of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. She brings valuable clinical and research experience from academic medical centers and hospitals in the United States and Europe.
Minelly brings her wealth of experience in quality and safety compliance pertaining to patient care and clinical trials to our team. We warmly welcome her aboard and look forward to her valuable contributions.
Welcome, Minelly!
Laurencia Perea RN, BSN
Clinical Research Nurse
Hannah Gilkey RN BSN
Clinical Research Nurse
Laurencia accomplished her education at the University of Oklahoma. In her role as a Clinical Research Nurse, she tirelessly directed patients through various study tests and procedures while delivering compassionate medical care. Laurencia's dedication and expertise significantly enhance our clinical research and patient satisfaction.
Hannah serves patients as a nurse in Emergency Department in one of the hospitals in Chicago. After hours she helps our patients guiding them through the complex process of islet transplantation and participation in clinical trials.
Nicole Wojcik, MD
Research Fellow
Tanya Klein
Director of Business Operations
Tanya leads strategic planning and financial oversight that supports both clinical and research initiatives. Formerly a lab operations manager in the Neuroimmunology department at Northwestern University, Tanya entered the field of transplant in 2024. Tanya is passionate about improving outcomes for patients through operational excellence.
Nicole, a native of Chicago, has obtained her medical degree from the Medical University of Poznan in Poland. Currently, she is dedicated to her research fellowship as part of her preparation for further medical training.
Nathan Appelbaum
Research Associate
Nick Aguilar
Research Associate
Nathan graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. He joined our team to explore medical research and gain clinical experience before entering his medical training. He has recently been accepted to the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA. Congratulations Nathan!
Nick also graduated from Vanderbilt University. He will be joining us to explore clinical research as he prepares for medical school. Welcome to the team, Nick!
CELL PROCESSING RESEARCH TEAM
Braden Juengel MD
Director, Laboratory for
Pancreatic Islet Isolation and Transplantation
Ling-jia Wang MD PhD Technical Director,
BLA Senior Project Manager,
Islet Transplantation
Martin Tibudan MS
Transplant Research
Specialist
Martin Tibudan MS
Transplant Research
Specialist
CLINICAL TEAM
Martin manages the preparation for the islet processing for clinical applications. He is indispensable in ensuring the smooth execution of all procedures and final product quality testing. He meticulously oversees supplies, equipment, and logistics pertinent to our experiments and islet isolations. His dedication and attention to detail contribute greatly to the success of our transplant program.
Alexandra is a biomedical engineer who joined the team to gain more hands-on laboratory experience. They assist in preparing equipment and supplies for isolations, aid in preparing islets during isolations, and perform quality testing on the final product. Alex also provides technical support for patients enrolled in our studies.
Braden is a highly skilled transplant surgeon with specialized training in pancreatic islet isolation and transplantation. His expertise enables him to lead the team in processing islets for clinical transplantation. With his comprehensive training and experience, Braden plays a pivotal role in advancing the field of transplantation.
Ling-jia is a world-class expert in clinical islet isolation. Over the last twenty years, she has served as a mentor and teacher to numerous young researchers.
Her contributions include the development of an innovative islet imaging and counting system, along with co-inventing the North American Islet Donor Scoring System.
Ling-jia's pioneering work significantly advances the field of islet transplantation and donor assessment.
Martin Tibudan MS
Transplant Research
Specialist
Alexandra Juszczyk BS
Research Specialist
Amanda Buerress
Transplant
Physician Assistant
Lisa Potter Pharm D Research Pharmacist
Amanda leads a team of Advanced Practice Providers taking care of our patients admitted to the hospital for their transplant procedures. The team tirelessly provide medical care and comfort to our patients, order necessary tests, medications and procedures.
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Ewelina Orozco
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Roshni Shah
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Nicole
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Kellie Zavala
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Kim Huynh
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Elizabeth Mangen
Lisa is our pharmacy leader with great experience in clinical research involving testing new medication against placebo in the setting of randomized studies. She is critical in the preparation of the study medication, even if this means to come to the hospital in the middle of the night or weekend when transplants usually happen.
Richard Cummings
Organ Procurement Coordinator
Rich and other organ procurement coordinators review potential donor charts looking for optimal organs for our patients. They also coordinate transportation of the organs in the shortest possible time to our center, so they can be successfully transplanted with the optimal outcome.
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Ali Peterson
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Ray Myroup
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Lindsay Koepke
PREVIOUS TEAM
MEMBERS
Karolina Golab PhD
Lab Manager,
Pancreatic Islet and
T regulatory Cell
Project Manager
Laurencia Perea RN BSN
Clinical Research Nurse
As a scientist, Karolina spearheaded the development of our T regulatory cell ex vivo expansion project, propelling us closer to its inaugural clinical application. Additionally, she played a pivotal role in leading our islet processing team, contributing significantly to the success of our islet transplantation program, positioning it as the most efficient in the country. Karolina's dedication and expertise have been instrumental in advancing our research and clinical initiatives.
Subsequently, Karolina move from academic to industry to continue her research related to clinical applications of novel cellular therapies.
Laurencia accomplished her education at the University of Oklahoma. In her role as a Clinical Research Nurse, she tirelessly directed patients through various study tests and procedures while delivering compassionate medical care. Laurencia's dedication and expertise significantly enhance our clinical research and patient satisfaction.
Recently, she has been promoted to the manager position in the Clinical Research Center at our institution, where she continues facilitating excellent patient service provided also to our patients.
Christine Trotter
Transplant Nurse Practitioner
Jesus Rodrigez III,
Organ Procurement Coordinator
After 9 years of leading medical team proving exemplary service to our patients, Christine decided to purse new exciting career opportunities. Currently, she leads medical team managing kidney transplantation in the Veteran Affairs Hospital In Chicago.
Jesse often worked 24/7 reviewing potential donor charts looking for optimal organs for our patients. He also coordinated transportation of the organs in the shortest possible time to our center, so they can be successfully transplanted with the optimal outcome.
Yearly Update
Our Lab Manager Dr. Karolina Golab was promoted and joined Lonza Cell and Gene Company in Houston, TX. Congratulations!
Dr. Ling-jia Wang re-joined us to lead our Islet Isolation Team. Welcome Lingjia and thank you for coming back!
Peter Borek and Gabriella Generette- Stepinska successfully matched and started their residency programs in June. Congratulations and good luck!
Damian Grzybowski, young physician from Poland joined us for few month training in islet transplantation and then pursued completion of his main research project at University of Illinois. We wished him the best.
Peter Borek MD, took over Damian's position to learn about islet and abdominal organ transplantation.
Natalia Fillman MD has just completed her training in clinical research and research administration with us. We wish her the best pursuing the next step of her career. all the best Natalie. we will miss you.
Filip Antic MD is joining us and starting his clinical research training. Filip has accomplished his medical education in Serbia where his family come from and now would like to gain some research experience before starting his postgraduate training as a medical resident.
December 31, 2017: Kamil Cieply M.D. accomplished his training with us. We wish him the best with his career and applications for residency.
December 8, 2017: Congratulations Dr. Justyna Golebiewska for publication in the American Journal of Transplantation!
December 1, 2017: Welcome two new members of our team: Yevhen Pavelko M.D. and Bohdan Zoshchuk M.D, They are young physicians from Lviv, Ukraine obtaining training in clinical research in our lab before starting their surgical residency in the US.
November 30, 2017: Dr Justyna Golebiewska, transplant nephrologist from Poland, accomplished her two month training in pancreatic islet and organ transplantation in our lab and hospital. She was a scholar supported by ESOT (European Society of Transplantation). It was her second training with us. After returning to her home institution (Medical University of Gdansk), she will be preparing the launch of the islet transplantation program there.
What a last two months of the year 2017 !
Only in November and December 2017, we had 8 manuscripts accepted for publication. Congratulation to the entire team!
Congratulations to our Dr Piotr Trzonkowski and other members of A FACTT Consortium for acceptance of the important publication in the field of the Treg cells "Minimum information about T regulatory cells (MITREG): a step towards reproducibility and standardization" in the journal Frontiers in Immunology,
See more details about our activity in FACTT Consortium.
Congratulations Dr Julia Solomina and Dr Justyna Golebiewska for their two publications just released in Transplantation Proceedings:
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Quality of Life in Patients With Chronic Pancreatitis After Total Pancreatectomy With Islet Autotransplantation: A Preliminary Report.
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External Validation of the Newly Developed BETA-2 Scoring System for Pancreatic Islet Graft Function Assessment and Pain Control, Glucose Control,
Both studies were selected for oral presentation during the Congress of The Islet and Pancreas Transplantation Association in Oxford, UK in June 2017.
See more our islet allotransplantation related publications.
Let's congratulate Dr Karolina Golab and rest of the team on the acceptance of her manuscript "Cell Banking For Regulatory T Cell- Based Therapy: Strategies To Overcome the Impact of Cryopreservation On the Treg Viability And Phenotype" for publication in Oncotarget(IF=5.168).
...This is Karolina's second report in this journal describing our protocol for ex vivo T regulatory cell expansion for clinical application in transplantation and therapy of autoimmune disease for example T1DM, ulcerative colitis, multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis...
Acknowledgment: Both studies were possible to accomplished thanks to the bridging funding from Department of Surgery and Dean's Office. Thank you Dean Polonski and Dr Matthews! It allowed us to optimize Treg processing and adjust it to meet clinical requirements. We are now actively looking for funding for a pilot phase 1/2 study,
See more our T-reg related publications.
Congratulations to Dr Omid Savari and the rest of the team for his publication "Total Pancreatectomy with Islet Autotransplantation for the Ampullary Cancer. A Case Report just released in Journal of Gastrointestinal Cancer."
It is a very important report highlighting presence of the risk of cancer recurrence even in small tumors after total pancreatectomy and islet autotransplantation.
See more our publications related to islet autotransplantation.
Congratulations to Dr Xiao, our collaborator from Pittsburgh for his manuscript " Endogenous Reprogramming of Alpha Cells into Beta Cells Induced by Viral Gene Therapy Reverses Autoimmune Diabetes" accepted for publications in Cell Stem Cell (IF 22.368)!
See more publications of our collaborators.
Bravo Hugo, congratulation on publication of your paper "Use of Biocompatible Alginate Scaffolds Covalently Modified with Cyclic RGDfK Peptides to Improve Survival of Transplanted Cells and Angiogenesis in Damaged Myocardium. Tissue Engineering, Part A. 2017 Nov 13.