Carlos Theodore Huerta, a doctor of medicine, is a resident physician at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, class of 2019. His research interests include trauma. He has published more than 50 documents, and his h-index is 5 with 79 citations (according to Scopus).
Hongwei Shao has been a lab manager (surgery) at the University of Miami School of Medicine since 2012. He was an associated professor (surgery) at Tianjin Medical University General Hospital from 2002 to 2006. He was a post-doctoral (surgery) at the University of Miami School of Medicine from 2004 to 2008. His research interests include the tumor microenvironment, melanoma, fibroblasts, and drug resistance.
Antoine Ribieras is a general surgery resident at the University of Miami and Jackson Health System in Miami, FL, USA. He received his undergraduate degree in physiology from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and his M.D. from the Boston University School of Medicine in Boston, MA. During his general surgery residency, he worked as a post-doctoral fellow (2020–2022) in the vascular biology lab of Dr. Omaida C. Velazquez and Dr. Zhao-Jun Liu at the University of Miami. His research focused on developing gene and cell therapies to promote angiogenesis in mouse hindlimb ischemia models, specifically targeting E-selectin, an endothelial cell adhesion molecule involved in post-natal neovascularization.
Carl Atkinson has been a professor (pulmonary medicine) at the University of Florida since 2021. He was an assistant professor (microbiology and immunology) at the Medical University of South Carolina from 2006 to 2012, the director of the Lee Patterson Allen Transplant Immunobiology Laboratory, as well as an associate professor (microbiology and immunology) and a professor, from 2012 to 2020, and the director of Lee Patterson Allen Transplant Immunobiology Laboratory from 2020 to 2021 at Medical University of South Carolina. His research interests include immunology, histopathology, immunohistochemistry, inflammation, cytokines, molecular biology, cancer research, cancer biology, and lung proteins.
Tiago Machuca, MD, PhD, joined the Miami Transplant Institute in 2022 as director of the Lung Center, chief of the Division of Lung Transplantation, assistant director of global oncology at Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, and professor of clinical surgery at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Before joining MTI, he served as chief of the Thoracic Surgery Division and assistant professor of surgery at the University of Florida. Before that, he served as program director for the adult ECMO program, and the surgical director of the adult and pediatric programs at UF Shands. He completed his clinical fellowships in thoracic surgery and lung transplantation and was also a post-doctoral research fellow at the Latner Thoracic Surgery Research Laboratories at the University of Toronto. He earned his medical degree at the Federal University of Parana, followed by his general surgery residency at the University of Sao Paulo, a thoracic surgery residency at Santa Casa de Porto Alegre, and a doctoral degree in respiratory sciences from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, all in Brazil. His clinical interests include thoracic surgical oncology, minimally invasive thoracic surgery, robotic surgery, tracheal surgery, lung transplantation, and extracorporeal life support, while his research interests include lung preservation, ex vivo lung perfusion, lung transplantation, and donation after determination of circulatory arrest and extracorporeal life support.
Zhao-Jun Liu, MD, PhD, is a full professor at the Department of Surgery, University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He obtained his PhD from Osaka University, Japan. His research interests span both vascular biology and cancer biology. His interest in the field of vascular biology has focused on the role of Notch signaling in postnatal neovascularization and vascular diseases, including atherosclerosis. In addition, he is investigating the signals and mechanisms governing circulating stem/progenitor cells, such as endothelial progenitor cells (EPC) and mesenchymal stem cells (MSC), homing to target tissues via specific attachment of these cells on the endothelium in diseased tissues and subsequent extravasation, for the sake of developing cell-based therapy by targeted delivery of therapeutic cells for the therapeutic angiogenesis to treat critical limb ischemia and non-healing wounds. In the field of cancer biology, his research is directed toward the elucidation of how dysregulation of the Notch signaling pathway, both in the neoplastic cells and in the tumor stromal cells, leads to melanocytic transformation and melanoma progression. The major goal of his research in this part is to develop novel cancer therapy through targeting the Notch signaling pathway and its downstream mediator(s), in cancer cells or the tumor microenvironment, for melanoma/cancer treatment.
Omaida Caridad Velazquez, MD, FACS, is a professor of surgery, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine and a David Kimmelman Endowed Chair in Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, University of Miami. Dr. Omaida Velazquez is a nationally and internationally renowned surgeon–scientist, recognized within her field and the broader community of physician–scientists, as seen by her induction into the American Society for Clinical Investigators (ASCI). Her seminal contributions to pre-clinical and clinical research are numerous. Her pre-clinical research centers on stem cells and angiogenesis, wound healing, atherosclerosis, critical limb ischemia (CLI), and limb salvage. Dr. Velazquez obtained her BS from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1987 and obtained an MD degree from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Jersey Medical School, graduating valedictorian in her class of 1991. She completed her post-graduate training in general and vascular surgery at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to her clinical training, she pursued additional years in research at the University of Pennsylvania and was the recipient of the 1997 Jonathan E. Rhoads Research Award. She also received the von Liebig Foundation Award for Excellence in Vascular Surgical Research (2001), the University of Pennsylvania Center of Excellence Faculty Scholar Award (2002), and the Joel J. Roslyn Faculty Research Award (2003).
