UF welcomes new chief of transplantation surgery
Raja Kandaswamy, M.D.
Raja Kandaswamy, M.D., has joined the University of Florida’s College of Medicine as chief of the division of transplantation and as the Robert H. and Kathleen M. Axline Professor of Surgery.
Kandaswamy comes to UF from the University of Minnesota, where he served as a professor of surgery and as director of pancreas transplantation and the transplant fellowship program.
“The University of Florida has a long tradition of being a leader in solid organ transplantation. Over the last two-and-a-half decades, we have really led the way in transplantation,” Kandaswamy said. “Currently there is a great crop of people here and I think this program holds a lot of promise.”
Kandaswamy earned his medical degree from Kilpauk Medical College at the University of Madras in his native India. He completed residencies in transitional medicine and in general surgery at Howard University Hospital in Washington, D.C., and a fellowship in multi-organ transplant surgery at the University of Minnesota.
His research interests include islet transplantation and immune tolerance, while his clinical interests are multi-organ abdominal transplants, pancreas transplantation, islet autologous transplantation and minimally invasive surgery, including robotic-assisted surgery.
Islet cells are those within the pancreas that produce insulin and another hormone called glucagon. Kandaswamy said he will be the first surgeon to perform an islet autologous transplant at UF.
A patient undergoes this procedure when a diseased pancreas causes constant pain that does not relent with medical treatment, and the organ must be removed. Normally, removing the pancreas will cause diabetes mellitus. In an effort to prevent this, the surgeon takes healthy islet cells from the pancreas and implants them into the patient’s liver. Ideally, the cells resume insulin production, preventing the onset of diabetes.
Islet allogenic transplantation, in which a donor’s islets are transplanted into another person, is still considered an experimental procedure.
In addition, Kandaswamy is working to establish the University of Florida Institute of Transplantation. He will serve as the director of the program.
The institute “will bring all members of the (abdominal) transplant team together, whether they be physicians, social workers, nurses, PAs or administrators, to work toward a transplant mission as a combined team,” Kandaswamy said. “I think this goes a long way in establishing efficiency, success, teamwork and morale.”
He also is helping to establish a laboratory for islet research within the department of surgery.
Kandaswamy and his wife, Beth Kandaswamy, R.N., have two daughters.
“Dr. Kandaswamy will provide critical leadership and mentorship to our transplant surgeons and faculty,” said Kevin Behrns, M.D., chairman of the department of surgery. “Not only is he adept at building robust kidney and pancreas transplant programs, he will lead a clinical translational research effort. He will also work closely with Shands at UF transplant personnel to ensure that our programs are growing and delivering the highest-quality care.”