Cardiothoracic Surgery Research
Research News
Congratulations to Scott B. Johnson, MD, Professor, and Head of Division of Thoracic Surgery, who has been awarded $50,000 by the IIMS/CTSA Pilot Project grant for proposal entitled “Efficacy of Inhaled Nanoparticle Tacrolimus in Preventing Rejection in a Rodent Lung Transplant Model.” This proposal is one of 16 to be funded (some in partnership with CTRC and SOM), ranking near the top of the 74 submissions.
In addition, Dr. Johnson has been awarded $9,900 for academic year 2011-2012 by the Institute for Integration of Medicine and Science in support of his Translational Technology Resources (TTR) application entitled, “Evaluation of Inhaled Nanoparticle Tacrolimus in Attenuation of Ischemia Reperfusion Injury in a Rat Lung Transplant model.”
Nitin A. Das
Research Coordinator, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery
Education:
MBBS, Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India (1997)
MD, Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) certification (2002)
Postgraduate Training:
St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi, India (1999-2001)
St Louis University Hospital, St Louis, MO (2003-2005)
Research Experience:
- Participation in on-going epidemiological survey of rural population related to impact of accessibility to satellite health care facility, health education and socio-economic status on the promotion of preventative health, incidence of morbidity and allocation of resources (1995 -1996) - Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India.
- Ischemia Reperfusion injury in lung transplantation (2005-2007) - Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO. Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Use of Intraparenchymal Stents to Improve Compliance of Emphysematous Lungs ex-vivo (2005 - 2007) - Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO. Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery
- Urodynamics in presence of Ureteric Stone in Porcine model(2007 - 2008) - Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO. Division of Urologic Surgery
- Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy with Selective Arterial Clamping in Porcine model(2007 - 2008) - Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, MO. Division of Urologic Surgery
Skills:
- Microsurgery: Performed several Orthotopic Left Lung Transplant in Rats.
- Flexible Bronchoscopy: Performed bronchoscopy and placed Intraparenchymal stent in several explanted human lung specimen.
- Flow Cytometry: Processed and stained tissue samples for FACS analysis and collected data using 5-color flow cytometers
- Laparoscopic Surgery: Performed several laparoscopic total and partial nephrectomies in porcine models after selective clamping of arterial blood flow.
- Portable Ultrasonography: Performed several ultrasonographic assessments of renal blood flow in a porcine model; assessment of prostate and freezing with cryoprobe in a canine model.
Publications and Presentations::
Duodenal Tuberculosis:
Presentation as Gastric Outlet Obstruction.
Raul SK, Das NA, Vakil R, Paljor YD, Joseph SC.
Indian Journal of Surgery, Vol. 65, No. 3, 2003, 277-279
A Mouse Model of Orthotopic Vascularized Aerated Lung Transplantation. M. Okazaki, A. S. Krupnick, C. G. Kornfeld, J. M. Lai, J. H. Ritter, S. B. Richardson, H. J. Huang, N. A. Das, G. A. Patterson, A. E. Gelman, D. Kreisel (2007) American Journal of Transplantation 7 (6) , 1672-1679 PMID: 17717320
Airway bypass improves the mechanical properties of explanted emphysematous lungs. Choong CK, Macklem PT, Pierce JA, Das N, Lutey BA, Martinez CO, Cooper JD. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2008 Nov 1;178(9):902-5. Epub 2008 Jul 31. PMID: 18669815
Robotic Assisted Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy for Suspected Renal Cell Carcinoma: Retrospective Review of Surgical Outcomes of 35 Cases Sam B Bhayani and Nitin Das BMC Surgery MS ID : 1071055164205778
The feasibility of diaphragmatic transplantation as potential therapy for treatment of respiratory failure associated with Duchenne muscular dystrophy: Acute canine model A . Krupnick, A . Gelman, M . Okazaki, J . Lai, N . Das, S . Sugimoto, T . Tung, S . Richardson, G . Patterson, D . Kreisel The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery , Volume 135 , Issue 6, Pages 1398 - 1399.e1
Apyrase treatment prevents ischemia-reperfusion injury in rat lung isografts. Sugimoto S, Lin X, Lai J, Okazaki M, Das NA, Li W, Krupnick AS, Chen R, Jeong SS, Patterson GA, Kreisel D, Gelman AE. Journal Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. 2009 Sep; 138(3):752-9.
Effects of CT Section Thickness and Reconstruction Kernel on Emphysema Quantification Gierada, David S., Bierhals, Andrew J., Choong, Cliff K., Bartel, Seth T., Ritter, Jon H., Das, Nitin A., Hong, Cheng, Pilgram, Thomas K., Bae, Kyongtae T., Whiting, Bruce R., Woods, Jason C., Hogg, James C., Lutey, Barbara A., Battafarano, Richard J., Cooper, Joel D., Meyers, Bryan F., Patterson, G. Alexander Academic Radiology, ISSN: 1076-6332, Vol: 17, Issue: 2, Date: 2010-01-01, Start page: 146, # of pages: 11
Selective Versus Nonselective Arterial Clamping During Laparoscopic Partial Nephrectomy: Impact upon Renal Function in the Setting of a Solitary Kidney in a Porcine Model Benway, Brian M, Baca, Geneva, Bhayani, Sam B, Das, Nitin A, Katz, Matthew D, Diaz, Dilmer L, Maxwell, Keegan L, Badwan, Khalid H, Talcott, Michael R, Liapis, Helen, Cabello, Jose M, Venkatesh, Ramakrishna, Figenshau, Robert S Journal of Endourology, ISSN: 0892-7790, Vol: 23, Issue: 7, Date: 2009-01-01, Start page: 1127, # of pages: 8
Effects of diffusion time on short-range hyperpolarized 3He diffusivity measurements in emphysema Gierada, David S, Woods, Jason C, Bierhals, Andrew J, Bartel, Seth T, Ritter, Jon H, Choong, Cliff K, Das Nitin A, Hong, Cheng, Pilgram, Thomas K, Chang, Yulin V, Jacob, Richard E, Hogg, James C, Battafarano, Richard J, Cooper, Joel D, Meyers, Bryan F, Patterson, G Alexander, Yablonskiy, Dmitriy A, Conradi, Mark S Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging, ISSN: 1053-1807, Vol: 30, Issue: 4, Date: 2009-01-01, Start page: 801, # of pages: 8
Poster Presentations at 25th World Congress of Endourology (WCE) 2007, Cancun, Mexico: Oct 30-Nov 3, 2007:
Acute Effects of Different Hydrational States on Ureteral Dynamics and Stone Movement: An In Vivo Porcine Study
Laparoscopic Cyst Decortication for Autosomal Dominant Polycystic Kidney Disease; Long Term Follow-Up
Efficacy and Complications of the Dornier HM3 versus the New Dual Focus Electromagnetic (SLX-F2) Lithotriptor
Comparison of Laparoscopic and Percutaneous Cryoablation of Renal Tumors: A cost analysis
Laparoscopic Nephroureterectomy with Laparoscopic Management of Distal Ureteral Cuff: A Video of Technique.
Poster Presentations at American Urological Association (AUA) Annual Meeting, Orlando, Florida. May 17-22, 2008: Effects of Alpha-blocker in Ureteral Dynamics With and Without a Ureteral Stone: An In Vivo Porcine Study [1640]
Biosketch: Nitin A Das is a medical graduate from Christian Medical College, Ludhiana, India and completed one-year rotatory internship as part of this education. Thereafter, he served as a Medical Officer at a rural Mission Hospital for two years, where he was involved in direct patient care of all ages and walks of life, at both in-patient and out-patient, and performed several major and minor surgical procedures. He pursued a post-graduate training in General Surgery at St Stephen's Hospital, Delhi, India as a Diplomate of National Board for over two years. After coming to United States in 2002, Nitin cleared his USMLE Boards and was ECFMG certified and was accepted into the General Surgery Residency program at St Louis University Hospital, St Louis, MO. He did two years of Preliminary residency and then joined Washington University as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow. He was with the Cardiothoracic Surgery Division at WUSM for two years and performed several rat lung transplants. During this time he also taught the procedure to visiting micro-surgeons and new researchers in the lab. He also participated in research using emphysematous human lungs and collaborated with other disciplines viz. Radiology. He cherishes his involvement with the human lung transplant program and the opportunity to go on harvest of the donor specimens. After two years in lung transplant research, Nitin made a lateral move to the Division of Urology Research Lab where he studied the urodynamic changes in a porcine ureter in presence of ureteric stone. He also studied the benefit of selective arterial clamping during partial nephrectomy to minimize post-op renal impairment. He presented the research done at International and National meetings.
He has joined the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery Research Lab as a Research Coordinator since June 2010 and intends to play an active role in the on-going research endeavors especially those related to lung transplantation. He will be collaborating with other PIs as well in their new and on-going projects not related to lung transplantation including clinical research.
