Giselle Guerra (US)

I am a transplant nephrologist for over 20 years of which I have been fortunate enough to have served as Medical Director of Transplant Services for over 10 years and 7 years as Medical Director for Kidney and Living Donor Transplant Programs at the Miami Transplant Institute (MTI). Under my leadership, MTI grew to become one of the largest and most innovative kidney transplant programs in the US transplanting 502 kidneys in a single year for 2019.  Even more exciting was the use of innovation to help advance patient care with the commencement of the kidney robotic program over 6 years ago serving both living donors and kidney transplant recipients.

A key focus of my work has been expanding the use of what we refer to as marginal kidneys, which has allowed us to increase the number of viable organs available for transplant. I have led national efforts to refine donor-recipient matching and customize immunosuppressive regimens to improve transplant success rates and ensure that more patients have access to life-saving procedures.

Having authored over 120 peer-reviewed publications and contributed to several book chapters has allowed me the opportunity to improve long-term outcomes for kidney transplant recipients especially with projects like the NIH-funded APOLLO study and the HOPE trial. In addition to contributing to these studies, significant work is underway to optimize kidney organs with the use of machine perfusion, hypothermic and most recently with normothermic machines for which I am currently continuing efforts through 34 Lives. 

In addition, I have expanded my efforts internationally, particularly in Brazil, where I have helped strengthen transplant programs and promote the concept of "transplantation without borders.”  To date the program implemented under my direction has been the largest living donor program established in Sao Paulo, Brazil and has continued to grow faster than all others in Brazil marking number 100 LD transplants in under 2 years.