Luca Cicalese, MD
Dr. Luca Cicalese was born in Rome, Italy, and graduated from the University of Rome "La Sapienza" where he also trained in General Surgery and received his board certification. Then, he completed his fellowship in transplantation surgery at the T.E. Starzle Transplant Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. There he distinguished himself for his high merit, publishing numerous scientific articles and obtaining grants and awards from the most prestigious Societies. For this work, he was given a faculty appointment as Instructor of Surgery, which he held up to 1998.
Dr. Cicalese was later recruited at The University of Texas Medical
Branch (UTMB), where he holds the titles of Tenured Professor of Surgery, John Sealy Distringuished Chair of Transplant Surgery, Director of the Texas Transplant Center and Director of Hepatobiliary Surgery. Since his arrival at UTMB, Dr. Cicalese has established a new liver transplant program and established a successful hepatobiliary service. He has reorganized the multi-organ transplant center, improving the clinical outcome of all abdominal transplants that now are above national average. He also directed the establishement of one of the few clinical islet transplant centers in the U.S.