Vijay Gorantla, MD, PhD, MMM, FRCS

Dr. Gorantla is a clinician-scientist, trained in surgery and transplantation immunology, whose work intersects disciplines as varied as surgery and nanotechnology, imaging, and neuroscience, or bioengineering and chemistry. As a tenured Professor of Surgery and Director of the Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) Program at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist, Dr. Gorantla's academic interests relate to basic and clinical research in restorative surgery, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, to address the critical needs of our service members.

Prior to being recruited to Wake Forest in 2017, he was lead Investigator on several military funded grants totaling over 14 million dollars awarded to the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), including translational and clinical trials in hand transplantation and whole eyeball transplantation.

At the University of Louisville, Dr. Gorantla was a key member on the team led by Dr. Warren Breidenbach, who in January 1999, who performed the Nation’s first hand transplant. This patient still holds the record for the world’s longest surviving graft at 24 years. During his decade-long tenure as Director of the VCA Program at UPMC and Director of the Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Hand Transplant Program between 2006 and 2016, Dr. Gorantla co-directed the Nation’s first clinical trial for hand transplantation sponsored by the Department of Defense with the completion of 8 transplants in 5 patients including the Nation’s first bilateral and full forearm transplants. In 2008, he co-founded the first national society for VCA, the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation (ASRT).

Dr. Gorantla is currently co-lead with Yale University on a National Consortium effort in VCA to standardize practices and procedures across face and hand transplantation. He is Vice-Chair of the UNOS VCA Committee, and Member at Large on the AST VCA Advisory Council and the immediate past President of the International Society of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (ISVCA) which is the largest and only global organization for VCA. He has served on the UNOS/OPNTN Membership and Professional Standards Committee (MPSC) for two terms given his expertise in clinical practice, education, research, and advocacy of VCA. Dr. Gorantla continues to be very active across societies, committees, regulatory bodies, funding review panels, journal editorial boards, and outreach efforts in the field of transplantation.