Thomas M. Suszynski

E-mail: susz0003@umn.edu

Year Entered: 2006

Degrees Received:
B.Bm.En., Biomedical Engineering, University of Minnesota, 2006

Thesis Advisor: Klearchos Papas, Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering Graduate Program

Research Interests:

Thomas Suszynski is a second-year MD/PhD student at the University of Minnesota Medical School. He received his Bachelor of Biomedical Engineering degree from the University of Minnesota in 2006. In the last several years, Tom has cultivated an immense respect for the magnitude of the problem of diabetes. From his clinical and research experiences, both at the University and in industry, he has garnered a passion to pursue more effective therapies and an eventual cure to the disease.

After his first two years of basic sciences medical training, Tom will perform research at the Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation (DIIT) as part of his doctoral dissertation. Currently, he is spending his free time laying the framework for his future thesis research. His research interests revolve more broadly around improving the clinical outcome of islet cell transplantation in the treatment of type I diabetes mellitus. More specifically, however, he is interested in tissue engineering artificial allo- and xeno-islet grafts that exhibit the capacity to fully reverse hyperglycemia in diabetic patients post-transplantation. He is also exploring the utility of 19F-, 1H-, and 31P- NMR spectroscopy and MRI-based techniques in non-invasively monitoring the engraftment process and lifespan of transplanted islets.

Publications:

Suszynski TM, Wildey GM, Falde EJ, Cline GW, Maynard KS, Ko N, Sotiris J, Naji A, Hering BJ, Papas KK.The ATP/DNA Ratio Is a Better Indicator of Islet Cell Viability Than the ADP/ATP Ratio. Transplant Proc. 2008;40:346-50.

Avgoustiniatos ES, Hering BJ, Rozak PR, Wilson JR, Tempelman LA, Balamurugan AN, Welch DP, Weegman BP, Suszynski TM, Papas KK. Commercially available gas-permeable cell culture bags may not prevent anoxia in cultured or shipped islets. Transplant Proc. 2008;40:395-400.