Erik Finger, MD, PhD
Dr. Finger is the Eunice L. Dwan Endowed Chair for Diabetes Research and Professor of Surgery at the University of Minnesota, where his research focuses on organ and tissue preservation. In addition, he is a multi-organ abdominal transplant surgeon with a particular focus on kidney and pancreas transplantation. He received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from UC Davis, an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Ph.D. at Harvard University in Biomedical and Biological Sciences, a General Surgery residency at MGH, and postdoctoral and clinical research fellowships in transplant immunology and clinical transplantation at UCSF. He has been a faculty member at the University of Minnesota for 15 years, where he is actively involved in clinical transplantation, clinical tolerance trials, and basic studies in transplant immunology and organ preservation. He has multiple grants from the U.S. National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. Recent achievements include the first long-term cryopreservation of organs, followed by successful transplantation.
2024-2026 | Michael Megaly, MD, MBA, BS
Degrees: Medical Doctor (MD), Masters in Business Administration (MBA) with a focus on Healthcare Administration, Bachelor of Science in Biological Science (BS),
Research Interest: Transplant cryopreservation and machine perfusion.
Dr. Megaly works on cryopreservation of hepatic spheroids, from formation of the spheroid to vitrification, rewarming and analysis afterwards. He is involved in large-model surgeries, procurements, transplants, necropsy, etc as well as small-model organ procurements and testing. He is similarly involved in normothermic and hypothermic machine perfusion studies.
About Me: I grew up in Michigan which is where I received all of my education from elementary through medical school. I matched into the general surgery residency program at the University of Minnesota. I am married to my incredible wife Chrissy and we have one handsome baby boy who we enjoy spending all our free time with (outside when possible).