This laboratory in the Department of Surgery strives to contribute knowledge on how to improve the outcomes of liver preservation, transplantation and resection in modern surgery.
Our work
The laboratory focuses on the impact of ischemia (disruption of blood flow), hypothermia (reduction of tissue temperature) and hypoxia (reduced oxygen concentrations) on liver tissue.
We are participating in LiverGroup.org, an international collaboration studying the clinical outcomes of complex liver resections. This includes surgeries that require preoperative induction of liver growth before undergoing resection.
Our lab is using rat models of rapid liver hypertrophy to investigate the role of tissue hypoxia on the modulation of liver growth. We are examining the activation of a hypoxia-sensing mechanism that induces liver regeneration in rodents in order to apply this liver modulation model to humans.
In addition to rodents, we are studying rapid liver hypertrophy in pigs. The purpose of these experiments is to determine if small segments of a pig liver can be grown large enough to serve as transplant organs.