Michael Abecassis, MD MBA is the J. Roscoe Miller Distinguished Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Microbiology/Immunology, Chief of the Division of Transplantation and Founding Director of the Northwestern University Comprehensive Transplant Center. He is also Dean for Clinical Affairs at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

Dr. Abecassis received his undergraduate and medical degrees as well as surgical training at the University of Toronto and completed fellowships in hepato-pancreatic surgery and liver transplantation at the Toronto General Hospital. During his surgical residency, he completed a two-year research fellowship obtaining a Master's Degree in viral immunology. He then received further training in renal and pancreatic transplantation at the University of Iowa. While at Iowa, he was the recipient of a Medical Research Council of Canada grant that allowed him to pursue research efforts in viral pathogenesis. He later completed a Master's Degree in business administration at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management of Northwestern University.

Dr. Abecassis began his clinical career as Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Iowa as Director of Liver Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery. He was recruited to Northwestern University in 1993 as Director of Liver Transplantation and was charged with initiating the program. In 2004, he was named Chief of the Division of Transplantation at Feinberg. He is also the Director of Kidney Transplantation.

In addition to his clinical activities, Dr. Abecassis has received continuous funding from the National Institutes of Health for the past 15 years, and is the principal investigator in research studies that span from molecular virologic studies of Cytomegalovirus to translational and clinical studies, including the A2ALL (Adult to adult living liver) study of living liver donor transplantation, CTOT (Clinical Trials in Organ Transplantation - subcontract), and the ITN (Immune Tolerance Network - subcontract). He is also the principal investigator of a training grant (T32) in transplantation research. He was recently awarded a CTOT renewal grant as principal investigator of a multicenter consortium to explore proteogenomic biomarkers in transplantation, as well as an A2ALL renewal grant to develop health services and outcomes research models that will predict long-term outcomes in living liver donors. Dr. Abecassis has trained a large number of both clinical and research fellows.

Dr. Abecassis has served and continues to serve on the Editorial Boards of the major relevant journals (Hepatology, Transplantation, Liver Transplantation) and on NIH study sections and special emphasis panels relating to both transplantation and virology. He is also a member of the Medicare Coverage Advisory Committee and of the United HealthCare Group Physician Advisory Board on Healthcare Performance and Quality. He has been a member of various local, regional, and national regulatory committees on organ allocation, is a leader in financial aspects of transplantation, and the member of many national and international professional societies, including the Society of University Surgeons and the American Surgical Association. He is currently President-elect of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and will serve as its President in 2010. He is a fellow in good standing of the Canadian Royal College of Surgeons, the American College of Surgeons and the American College of Physician Executives.

Dr. Abecassis was appointed Dean of Clinical Affairs at the Feinberg School of Medicine of Northwestern University in 2008. He was named Founding Director of the Northwestern University Comprehensive Transplant Center in 2009.