Dr. Zain Khalpey
MD, PhD, MRCS(Eng)
Dr. Zain Khalpey, MD, PhD, FETCS, is associate professor of surgery at the University of Arizona, surgical co-director of Heart Transplant and director of Mechanical Circulatory Support and Mitral Valve Program at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson. He has been awarded a 2015-16 Fulbright U.S. Scholar. Dr. Khalpey focuses his research on making more organs available to patients who need a transplant.
Dr. Khalpey, who is the Sarver Heart Center Tony A. Marnell, Sr. Endowed Chair for Research in Cardiac Surgery, joined the UA Department of Surgery in 2013. He came to the UA from Harvard Medical School (Brigham and Women’s Hospital) and Columbia University in New York City.
Dr. Khalpey has published more than 100 manuscripts, abstracts and book chapters on heart and lung transplantation involving basic science and clinical outcome studies. He is an American Heart Association reviewer and an Early Career Reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
He has received numerous teaching and institutional awards, including the Hunterian Medal and Professorship of Surgery from Royal College of Surgeons, England; the Winston Churchill Medal, bestowed by HRH Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill Memorial Trust, London, UK; Excellence in Teaching Award, Harvard University; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Fellowship from Switzerland and France; and the Solly Medal and Prize for Surgery from the University of London.
Dr. Khalpey is also on the Board of Directors for the American Academy and Board of Regenerative Medicine (AABRM).
Source: University of Arizona Health Sciences
Dr. Khalpey focuses his research on making more organs available to patients who need a transplant. Every day, 18 people on organ transplant lists die, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In Arizona, patients have to wait two to three years for a lung transplant, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. This waiting period is emotionally and financially draining for patients. Dr.Khalpey is trying to shrink the wait time by taking damaged organs and refurbishing them so they end up in a needy patient’s body. Other organs too damaged to be refurbished are stripped of their cells and used to grow new organs with the patient’s stem cells. In the future, donor organs may not be needed as Dr. Khalpey is working on hybrid organs that are 3-D printed and then seeded with the patient’s stem cells. – from the copamonitor.com