Scientific Advisory Board
Achilles A. Demetriou, M.D., Ph.D., (Chairman of the SAB) has been the Chief Operating Officer and Executive Vice President of the University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, Ohio since October 2005. From October 1995 until October 2005, Dr. Demetriou served as Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, California, and was a Professor of Surgery and Vice-Chair of the Department of Surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. He received his M.D. from the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel and his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He is recognized as a pioneer of hepatocyte-based liver support system development, work he initiated in the 1970s at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Demetriou is a co-inventor and developer of Arbios’ HepatAssist™ bioartificial liver.
Paul Martin, M.D., is currently Professor of Medicine and Associate Director of Division of Liver Diseases at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Medical Center. Dr. Martin is a world-known transplant hepatologist and an expert in the area of hepatitis and has conducted several clinical trials. He was previously the Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at the Center for Liver Diseases & Transplantation at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, CA, and was the former Medical Director of the UCLA Liver Transplant program. Dr. Martin was elected to America's Top Doctors in 2001 and is the recipient of the American Liver Foundation's Charles M. Trey, M.D., Chapter Leadership Award.
Santiago J. Munoz, M.D., is an Associate Professor of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia. He is also Head of the Division of Hepatology, Director of the Center for Liver Diseases, and Medical Director of the Liver Transplant Program at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. He received his M.D. from the University of Chile’s School of Medicine, Valparaiso, Chile. Dr. Munoz completed a Research Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at Thomas Jefferson Hospital of Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. He also completed a Research Fellowship in Pharmacology, Experimental Therapeutics and Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland. His main research interests include acute liver failure, chronic viral hepatitis C and B, and primary biliary cirrhosis. Dr. Munoz has delivered over three hundred lectures on liver diseases in the U.S. and abroad. He is a reviewer for a number of hepatology scientific journals, a long term abstract reviewer for the AASLD and AGA, and a member of the editorial board of the leading subspecialty journal Liver Transplantation. Dr. Munoz received the Physician of the Year Award by the American Liver Foundation in 2003 and recently was named a Top Doctor by Philadelphia Magazine.
Hector J. Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D., is currently Clinical Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, and Medical Director of Cedars-Sinai/DaVita Acute Renal Replacement Therapy Services, also in Los Angeles. He is also a Member of the DaVita Physician Council, El Segundo, California. He received his M.D. from the National University Colombia in Bogota, and Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of California, San Francisco.
Philip Rosenthal, M.D., is currently Director of Pediatric Hepatology, Medical Director of the Pediatric Liver Transplant Program and a Professor of Pediatrics and Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). He joined the UCSF faculty in 1995, after serving as Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Rosenthal is board certified in Pediatrics and Pediatric Gastroenterology. He received a B.S. degree in Biology from State University of New York at Albany and completed his medical training at Downstate Medical Center and the Albert Einstein Medical Center in New York, after which he completed a fellowship in pediatric gastroenterology at UCSF. Dr. Rosenthal is a prolific author and a recipient of a number of professional honors and awards and is committed to clinical service, research and education. Currently, he is pursuing research on the pharmaceutical treatment of hepatitis B and C, genetics and immunology of biliary atresia, use of bioartificial liver support utilizing porcine hepatocytes for patients with fulminant liver failure, as well as researching the quality of life following liver transplantation in children.
Robert S. Brown, M.D., is currently Associate Professor of Medicine & Surgery and Chief, Division of Hepatobiliary and Abdominal Transplant Surgery, Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons. In addition, he is currently Medical Director, Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation, New York Presbyterian Hospital -- a position he has held since 1998. Prior to joining Columbia University’s College of Physicians & Surgeons, Dr. Brown was Medical Director of Liver Transplantation at the University of North Carolina from 1996 to 1998. Dr. Brown received his A.B. degree from Harvard University, his M.D. degree from New York University, and his M.P.H. from the Graduate School of Public Health at the University of California at Berkeley. He completed a Fellowship in Gastroenterology and Hepatology at the University of California, San Francisco. Additionally, Dr. Brown is a fellow in the American College of Physicians and the American College of Gastroenterology, and is a member of the American Society of Transplantation, where he served as chair of the Liver and Intestine Committee and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease (AASLD). He is currently co-chair of the United Network for Organ Sharing ad hoc living donor committee. Dr. Brown was a special section editor for Hepatology, serves on the editorial board for Liver Transplantation and is a reviewer for the journals: Transplantation, American Journal of Gastroenterology, New England Journal of Medicine, and the International Journal of Epidemiology, among others. He has published more than 80 original articles, reviews and book chapters.
