Björn Nashan (CN)

BJÖRN NASHAN, MD, PhD, FACS, FRCSC, FEBS

Professor of Surgery

Director, Organ Transplant Center, First Affiliated Hospital, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, PR China

Professor Björn Nashan is currently Professor of Surgery and the Director of the Organ Transplant Center at the First Affiliated Hospital of the  University  of  Science and Technology of China in Hefei, Anhui, PR China.

He studied medicine at the Heinrich Heine University College of Medicine in Düsseldorf, Germany, and later worked as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Transplant Immunology Laboratory at the Klinik für Abdominal- und Transplantationschirurgie in Hannover. After completing his residency in surgery, Prof. Nashan was appointed as a consultant and completed his specialization in visceral and transplantation surgery.

In 1995, Prof. Nashan earned his PhD from the Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, where he was also appointed as Associate Professor. His clinical responsibilities encompassed hepato-pancreatic-biliary surgery and overseeing the multi-organ transplant program for both adults and children. This included liver, kidney, and pancreas transplants, with a particular focus on living donor liver and kidney transplantation.

Prof. Nashan was appointed Full Professor of Surgery in 2000. In 2003, he became Director of the Multi-Organ Transplant Program at Dalhousie University, QEII Health Science Center in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, where he also held an adjunct professorship in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. In 2007, he was appointed Chairman and Chief Surgeon of the Department of Hepatobiliary and Transplantation Surgery at the Medical University Clinic in Hamburg, Germany. He transitioned to his current position in October 2017.

Prof. Nashan has published extensively in the fields of transplantation, immunosuppression, and hepatobiliary surgery, with over 350 manuscripts in leading journals such as The Lancet, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature, Science, and American Journal of Transplantation. He also serves on multiple advisory boards for various organizations, companies, and government bodies.

Prof. Nashan has held numerous leadership roles, including President of the German Transplantation Society, Chairman of the Foundation Board of the German Organ Donation Foundation, and Vice-Chairman of the Permanent Committee on Organ Transplantation of the German Medical Association. He has also been a Board and Council Member of Eurotransplant, Counselor of the European Society of Organ Transplantation, and Past-President of the German Transplantation Society.

He served on the federal commissions of the liver and kidney/pancreas transplantation sections at the National German Institute for Quality Assessment in Health Care (IQTIG) until 2024. In recognition of his contributions, he received the Chinese Government Friendship Award in September 2019. Since 2023, he has served on the Advisory Board of the China Organ Transplantation Development Foundation (COTDF), as Senior Scientific Advisor to the China Organ Transplant Response System (COTRS), as an Honorary Member of the Chinese Medical Association (CMA), and is visiting Professor at the Research Centre of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence of Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou.

During his honorary roles in regulatory bodies, Prof. Nashan chaired the development and implementation of board-certified education for transplant physicians (ZWB Transplantationsmedizin), representing the German Transplantation Society (DTG) in collaboration with the German Medical Association and other medical specialty societies. He also played a key role in implementing numerous transplantation guidelines for the German Medical Association, including the Richtlinie zur Interdisziplinären Transplantationskonferenz (Guideline for Interdisciplinary Transplant Conferences). His work placed particular emphasis on establishing quality-based, interdisciplinary transplant centers with assessed standards.