Conference Speakers

I am a physician-scientist with expertise in protein and cell biology focused on inflammatory and immunocoagulopathic genesis of organ failure in critical illness and surgical diseases. I completed a postdoctoral fellowship in biology at MIT in the laboratory of Michael B. Yaffe MD, PhD, FACS investigating relationships between traumatic coagulopathy, endothelial dysfunction and inflammation in human and murine models as part of the NIH/DoD Trans-Agency Consortium for Trauma Induced Coagulopathy (TACTIC) and as the principal investigator on two additional grants (F32 from NHLBI, G30/LRP from NIGMS). I now hold a surgeon-scientist position at the University of Nebraska Medical Center where I continue my research investigating key molecular mechanisms underlying surgical and critical illnesses including traumatic injury, multiple organ failure, and chest diseases (respiratory failure, pleural space infection, hemothorax). I have an intense interest and substantial history running pre-clinical and clinical trials and studies of both therapeutic and diagnostic modalities in organ failure (particularly respiratory), pleural space infection, coagulation and fibrinolytic pathophysiologic states in trauma, surgery and critical illness. My recent work spans from basic science to multiple Phase II therapeutic clinical trials, including mechanisms of failed intrapleural fibrinolysis in surgical and infectious diseases of the chest, the role of tranexamic acid as a context dependent pro- and anti-inflammatory agent in traumatic injury in a plasminogen-activator dependent manner, the role of the hepatocyte growth factor pathway on coagulation and fibrinolysis after major injury, novel diagnostic assay development for pathologic changes in the fibrinolysis system, the intercommunication between coagulation/fibrinolysis and the complement system after injury with an emphasis on the role of the endothelium in linking these systems, and multiple recent randomized clinical trials (STARS, STAT) based on work from the lab being taken to clinic.