Today, we have the honor and priviledge of sitting down for coffee with THE Dr. John Fung.
Dr. Fung was one of Dr. Starzl’s early Transplant Fellows at the University of Pittsburgh in the 1980s, whose career grew exponentially over the next few decades. Born in eastern Pennsylvania, Fung initially studied biology at Johns Hopkins, and received both his Ph.D. in Immunology and his M.D. from the University of Chicago by 1982. He completed his residency at the University of Rochester, and in 1984 expressed interest in working with Dr. Starzl’s transplantation team at the University of Pittsburgh. Starzl was impressed with Fung’s work before even meeting him, noting in an early letter that, “someone who at the age of 28 years has as many tools at their disposal as Dr. Fung is certainly capable of making a major impact in clinical medicine.”
With his immunological background, Fung was a natural for selection for Starzl’s investigative team exploring the potential clinical usage of the emerging drug FK-506 (Tacrolimus). Their successes were widely hailed, and paved the way for more widespread adoption of organ transplantation.
Dr. Fung continued to enjoy enormous professional success at the University of Pittsburgh; he was made both an Assistant Professor of Surgery and the Director of Transplant Research in 1989, eventually advancing to Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Transplantation Surgery in 1991. In October 2000, he was named the Inaugural Holder of the Thomas E. Starzl Professorship in Transplantation Surgery.Fung has also been a successful surgeon and advocate outside of the University of Pittsburgh. He was a member of the United States Army Reserve Medical from 1987-2003, and served in Operation Desert Storm, achieving the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. He has been a strong advocate for the development of transplant protocols, including speaking before the United States Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee to encourage the reauthorization of the National Organ Transplant Act. From 1997 to 1999, he served as President of the International Liver Transplantation Society. In 2004, Fung left the University of Pittsburgh to become the Chairman of the Department of General Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, after two successful decades at Pitt and UPMC. Served as the Chairman of the Digestive Disease Institute at Cleveland Clinic, and Professor of Surgery at the Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western University. Currently, he serves as the Section Chief and Co-Director of the Transplant Insitute at UChicago.
We are lucky to have him on our podcast.
