Success in Academic Surgery: Basic Science

Catherine J. Hunter, MD graduated from Cornell Medical College of Medicine and completed her surgical training at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.  She completed her research fellowship at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles and has been the primary investigator of a funded basic science laboratory for over 10 years.  Her laboratory studies the pathophysiology of necrotizing enterocolitis, with a focus on epithelial signalling and tight junction biology. She is currently the Chief of Pediatric Surgery at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital Foundation Paula Milburn Miller Chair in Pediatric Surgery. 

Vikas Dudeja, MD is Professor with tenure, James P Hayes Endowed Professor and Director of Division of Surgical Oncology at University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his bachelor of medicine and surgery at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi, India. He also received his master of surgery from AIIMS in 2005.Dr. Dudeja spent the next 3 years doing research on the pathogenesis of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis and developing novel therapies against these diseases. Afterwards he received residency training in general surgery at the University of Minnesota and fellowship in complex general surgical oncology and hepato-pancreato-billiary surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Centre. Dr. Dudeja’s clinical practice is focused on taking care of patients with hepato-pancreatico-biliary diseases. On research front, Dr. Dudeja’s laboratory focuses on deciphering the biology of tumor microenvironment in pancreatic cancer and interaction of gut microbiome with anti-cancer immune response. In the area of pancreatitis, his laboratory focuses on developing novel treatment for this morbid disease. Currently, he is the initiating PI on two clinical trials evaluating novel drugs in patients with pancreatitis. His research efforts has been funded by grants from National Institute of Health (NIH), Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense and various Society Grants. His work has been published in high impact journals like Gastroenterology, GUT, Clinical Cancer Research and Nature Reviews in Gastroenterology and Hepatology.