Burcin Ekser, MD, PhD

Burcin Ekser, MD, PhD is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Indiana University School of Medicine where he completed his clinical fellowship in Abdominal Organ Transplant Surgery. He is an active multi-organ transplant surgeon with a main focus on adult and pediatric liver and intestine/multivisceral transplantation. Dr. Ekser serves as the Director of Transplant Research and Director of Transplant Immunology and Xenotransplantation Research Laboratories at Indiana University. Along with his busy clinical service, he directs an active extramurally funded research laboratory which is involved in genetic engineering, xenoimmunology, coagulation dysregulation, identification of new xeno-antigens, tissue engineering, 3D-organ bioprints and 3D-organ models (organoids), with a focus on 3D liver and kidney (normal and disease) models. He is an active member of many societies including, TTS, IXA, AST, ASTS, ESOT, ILTS, AASLD, and ISLS. Dr. Ekser has served as the Chair of Basic and Translational Science Committee of the ILTS. He currently serves as a co-chair of the ISLS Deceased Donor Liver Transplantation-Basic Science Study Group, and as a council member of the IXA, representing North America. He is also a member of the Vanguard Committee as well as Surgeon-Scientists Task Force Initiative of the ASTS. Dr. Ekser is also involved in program development and scientific program committees for TTS, IXA, ILTS, ATC, and ASTS Winter Symposium.

He has published more than180 peer-reviewed scientific articles mainly in high-impact journals, and holds several patents in 3D-bioprinting, 3D organoids and xenoantigen discovery.

Dr. Ekser is the recipient of the 2022 Rising Star in Transplantation Surgery Award by the ASTS and was previously the recipient of ASTS Vanguard Prize and ASTS Faculty Development Grant. He also won several young investigator and rising star awards from many different societies, including the ASTS, AST, ATC, ILTS, IXA, TTS.