Clinical Focus

• General Surgery
• Kidney and Pancreas Transplantation
• Liver Transplantation

Administrative Appointments

• Director, Pediatric Liver Transplant Program, Stanford University (1995 - present)
• Vice Chairman, Department of Surgery, Stanford University (1995 - 1997)
• Director, Multiorgan Transplant Fellowship, Stanford University (1998 - present)
• Associate Director, Institute for Immunity, Transplantation and Infection, Stanford University (2004 - present)
• Chief, Division of Transplantation, Stanford University (1998 - present)

Honors and Awards

• The Arnold and Barbara Silverman, Professor of Pediatric Transplantation, Stanford University (1999)
• Member, American Surgical Association (1997)
• Man of the Year, Costa Rica (1991)
• Fellow, American College of Surgeons (1990)
• National Research Service Award, NIH (1980)

Professional Education

Postdoctoral Advisees

Jennifer Berumen,  Campos Campos,  Elyssa Feinberg

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Surgery

Current Research Interests

My role in research is to bring clinical problems to the laboratory to find answers, which in turn, will improve patient care. Thus, my role is translational research in the field of liver and small bowel transplantation. As a senior clinical scientist, I provide leadership over many research projects conducted in the Division of Abdominal Transplantation laboratories. I have ensembled an outstanding research team lead by Olivia Martinez, Ph.D. and Sheri Krams, Ph.D. The investigators include undergraduate and post-graduate students, medical students, surgery residents and transplant fellows.
Research projects involve several models of transplantation of the liver, kidney, intestinal and heart transplantation in rodents. The goals of these research projects are to understand the molecular mechanisms of rejection and by manipulating those mechanisms, we are pursuing full acceptance of the transplanted organs, known as tolerance.

Clinical Trials

• An Investigational Plan Evaluating the Operative Management of Parenchymal Bleeding by Means of an Adjunctive Application of BioFoam® Surgical Matrix in Liver Surgery Not yet recruiting
• Risk Factors and Molecular Genomics of U.S. Patients with Chronic Liver Disease &Hepatocellular CA No longer recruiting

Publications

• A Common Peripheral Blood Gene Set for Diagnosis of Operational Tolerance in Pediatric and Adult Liver Transplantation. Li L, Wozniak LJ, Rodder S, Heish S, Talisetti A, Wang Q, Esquivel C, Cox K, Chen R, McDiarmid SV, Sarwal MM. Am J Transplant. 2012
• Changes in natural killer cell subsets in pediatric liver transplant recipients. Pham B, Piard-Ruster K, Silva R, Gallo A, Esquivel CO, Martinez OM, Krams SM. Pediatr Transplant. 2012; 16 (2): 176-82
• Emerging therapeutic strategies for Epstein-Barr virus+ post-transplant lymphoproliferative disorder. Hatton O, Martinez OM, Esquivel CO. Pediatr Transplant. 2012
• Grafts too big or too small: Business as usual in pediatric liver transplantation. Reding R, Dhawan A, Esquivel CO. Pediatr Transplant. 2012
• The impact of hepatic portoenterostomy on liver transplantation for the treatment of biliary atresia: Early failure adversely affects outcome. Alexopoulos SP, Merrill M, Kin C, Matsuoka L, Dorey F, Concepcion W, Esquivel C, Bonham A. Pediatr Transplant. 2012