Alejandro Nieponice, MD, PhD

Dr. Alejandro Nieponice is currently the Chief of The Esophageal Unit at Hospital Universitario Fundación Favaloro in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is also a faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an Adjunct Research Assistant Professor of the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Nieponice got his MD and PhD degrees at the University of Buenos Aires. He joined the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine in 2004. Prior to that, he completed the general surgery residency program in Argentina with a focus on esophageal surgery. In collaboration with Drs. Stephen Badylak, and Blair Jobe, he is utilizing ECM-derived scaffolds to regenerate esophageal tissue with the aim of decreasing the morbidity and mortality of current surgical procedures. He is also conducting research with other biomaterials to improve healing of gastrointestinal tissue with the aim of decreasing surgical complications. Dr. Nieponice has pioneered the treatment of esophageal reflux with electrical stimulation of the lower esophageal sphincter becoming the first surgeon worldwide to treat successfully a patient with reflux after a sleeve gastrectomy. He has also developed a program of interventional endoscopy for the treatment of early esophageal cancer and achalasia. Dr. Nieponice’s main goal is to foster clinical translation of novel tissue engineering and minimally invasive approaches by bridging his surgical and research background. His work has been recognized with more than 40 international abstracts, over 45 peer-reviewed publications, and 4 book chapters. He has served as reviewer for several journals of tissue engineering and biomaterials.  The technologies he has been working on with his colleagues led to 3 inventions that are under patenting process. He is currently a founding member of the American Foregut Society (AFS), and member of Society of American Gastrointestinal and Endoscopic Surgeons (SAGES) and the Argentinean Surgical Society (MAAC). View at list of Dr. Nieponice’s publications here.