Luis A. Fernandez, MD

Dr. Luis Fernandez earned his medical degree from the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Jose Maria Vargas School of Medicine in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1987. During his General Surgery residency at the University of Miami, he served a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Miami Diabetes Research Institute under the guidance of Dr. Camillo Ricordi, where he developed an interest in treatment modalities for type 1 diabetes, including islet transplantation.

Dr. Fernandez came to the University of Wisconsin in 2000, where he spent one year as a transplant research fellow in the laboratory of Dr. Stuart Knechtle. He completed his two-year clinical transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Wisconsin from 2001 to 2003. In July 2003, Dr. Fernandez joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin Division of Transplantation under the leadership of Dr. Hans Sollinger. He is currently Assistant Professor of Surgery in the University of Wisconsin Department of Surgery and Co-Director of the Islet Transplant Program at University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics.

Dr. Fernandez is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of the American Society of Transplantation, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, The Transplantation Society, the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association, and the Cell Transplant Society.

E-mail: isletlab@surgery.wisc.edu

Matthew S. Hanson, PhD

Associate Scientist and
Associate Director of the
Islet Core Facility
PhD, UW-Madison, 1995

My research focus has been the genetics and molecular and cellular biology of type I diabetes. At present, I am interested in utilizing microscopy and multi-color flow cytometry as tools to understand aspects of pancreatic islet cell biology such as apoptosis, oxidative stress, cell signaling molecule activation, glucose-stimulated metabolic activity, and insulin secretion. The development of islet quality assessments that can be translated from the research bench to clinic application is also a primary focus.     

E-mail: hansonm@surgery.wisc.edu

Jamie M. Sperger, PhD

Assistant Scientist
PhD, University of Colorado-Boulder, 2001

The journey of an islet from donor pancreas to transplant recipient brings with it many different stressors including mechanical, hypoxic, and osmotic stresses as well as pro-inflammatory stimuli. My goal is to better understand how islets respond to these stresses through examination of stress pathway activation and differences in gene expression. Additionally, we are using this better understanding of islet stress response to develop treatments to increase the health and viability of islets for transplantation.

E-mail: sperger@surgery.wisc.edu

Juan Sebastian Danobeitia, MD

Assistant Scientist
MD, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota, Colombia, 2004

My main goal is to find a practical surgical approach to optimize the treatment of patients with type I diabetes mellitus. My current research interests include the study of oxidative stress pathways and energy status of the pancreatic beta cell in order to design interventions that protect cells during stress periods and enhance the quality of islets obtained after isolation. I am also working on understanding and characterizing pathophysiological changes that occur during brain death prior to organ procurement and finding strategies to improve organ preservation methods.

E-mail: dano@surgery.wisc.edu

Alice Schwarznau, MD

Visiting Research Fellow
Surgical resident at the Department of Surgery, Technical University of Munich, Germany

My present research interests are the development of strategies to inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine induced oxidative stress on pancreatic islets in the brain dead donor, after isolation, and in recipients after intrahepatic transplantation.

Melissa Barman

Assistant Researcher, MS

I have recently joined the Fernandez lab with the broad research interest of gaining a better understanding of the genetic, molecular and cellular processes that determine islet function and viability. Work that I am currently involved with assesses the gene expression levels in donors after cardiac death and brain death. Another research interest of mine is to develop more effective immunosuppressant treatment for transplant recipients.   

E-mail: barman@surgery.wisc.edu

Elisa Park

Associate Research Specialist
BS, Biochemistry, UW-Madison

I recently joined Dr. Fernandez lab as an Associate Research Specialist. My primary involvement is in the quality control and assessment of islets. I utilize High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) to quantitatively analyze the nucleic acid content and ATP/ADP ratio to determine the energy state of the islets.

E-mail: park@surgery.wisc.edu

Drew Roenneburg

"Islet Masters"