20 Jan, 2026
Juliet Emamaullee Appointed to Lead Transplant Research at URMC
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Press Release:
The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) has announced the appointment of Juliet Emamaullee, MD, PhD, as the inaugural Research Director of the Transplant Institute, effective January 1, 2026. A nationally recognized surgeon-scientist, Emamaullee will lead efforts to expand transplant research, strengthen clinical trials, and accelerate the translation of discovery science into improved patient care.

The creation of this role reflects the rapid growth of URMC’s transplant programs and the launch of the Transplant Institute as a unifying structure for clinical care, research, and education. As Research Director, Emamaullee will work closely with Transplant Institute leadership, surgical and medical teams, researchers..... Click to read further
29 May, 2025
CHLA Infant the Youngest-Ever Liver Transplant Recipient in California
Image of a child in a hospital bed holding another person's hand
Our Patients:
​An abdominal organ transplant surgeon at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Kambiz Etesami, MD, FACS, takes matters into his own hands during every surgery he performs. In Banner’s case, he did so before ever getting to the operating room.

Diagnosed right after birth with a rare form of liver disease, Banner, at just 2 weeks old, needed a transplant to save his life—though according to all available records, a liver transplant on a neonate had never been performed in California. To that point, Dr. Etesami’s youngest patient at the time of transplant was 4 months old..... Click to read further
10 Feb, 2025
From Part-Time Job to Long-Term Career: College Students Explore the Medical Field Through Work-Study Jobs at CHLA
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Serving the Community:
​For most college students who benefit from the Federal Work-Study Program, the positions they take on may be only somewhat related to their desired career path. This is especially true for students who are interested in a medical career.

For those students, the work is unlikely to provide experience interacting with doctors, nurses, or other medical providers. A few years ago, Juliet Emamaullee, MD, PhD, FRCSC, FACS, physician and Research Director of Abdominal Organ Transplantation at CHLA, decided she wanted to change that..... Click to read further
03 Dec, 2024
Calming the Itch of Liver Disease
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Research and Breakthroughs:
A surprising yet miserable side effect of liver disease can be severe itchiness. Children with inherited cholestatic liver diseases can experience intermittent itching that doesn’t show up on standard tests but interferes with their lives, sleep, and ability to concentrate. Children too young to talk may be unable to explain their discomfort. This itching, called pruritis, is an effect of cholestasis, an inherited condition that affects about 1 in every 2,500 people, in which bile ducts become blocked, causing excessive bile to circulate in the body. “It's extremely debilitating,” says Rohit Kohli, MBBS, MS, Chief, Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. “Children come in who have scratched themselves to the point of bleeding. And if you are itching constantly, you cannot concentrate in school and don't feel like eating either, so growth and development is impaired.”.... Click to read further
02 Oct, 2024
Study Shows Changes to Organ Allocation Policy Reduced Waiting Time and Increased Transplants for Children With Pediatric Acute Liver Failure
Image of a child in a hospital bed holding another person's hand
Research and Breakthroughs:
​Liver transplantation is currently the only cure for pediatric acute liver failure (PALF), a rapidly progressing and life-threatening condition that can affect previously healthy children. Some children do not get a transplant in time because of lack of suitable organs. The Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) has periodically revamped its organ allocation policies over the years to prioritize sicker children over adults and expand the geographic area of donors. A recent study led by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles showed that this has helped improve the odds for children with PALF.... Click to read further
11 Sept, 2024
What is Liver Transplant Rejection?
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Advice from our Experts:
​Receiving a liver transplant means also living with the possibility of rejection. Transplant rejection occurs when the body’s immune system attacks the new organ. This risk is highest in the first year after the transplant, but rejection can happen at any time. To prevent this, patients take powerful medications to suppress their immune system and reduce inflammation. However, lowering immune defenses raises the risk of infections and certain cancers. Patients can, in part protect themselves by washing their hands to prevent infection, avoiding sun exposure and visiting a dermatologist... Click to read further
15 Apr, 2024
Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Researchers Probe Immune Microenvironment to Prevent Pediatric Liver Transplant Rejection
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​​Research and Breakthroughs:
Children with liver transplants must take immunosuppressant medications for life. To maintain tolerance of the transplanted liver, doctors treat transplant rejection and conduct ongoing maintenance immunosuppression by increasing dosages of medication enough to counteract rejection. CHLA researchers are developing an imaging panel that identifies the cell types implicated in transplant rejection. Their goal is to find potential biomarkers that can lead to more personalized immunosuppression therapies that treat rejection with fewer side effects... Click to read further
13 Feb, 2024
Researchers Uncover Social and Economic Factors That Influence Acute Liver Failure in Children - and Ways to Overcome Them
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​​Research and Breakthroughs:
Imagine your healthy child gets sick—so sick that you take them to the emergency department. You are shocked to find out that their liver is failing, and they will need a transplant to survive. Studies show that their chances of survival are higher the faster they can get to a hospital that performs liver transplants. But what factors affect how quickly that happens?... Click to read further
23 Oct, 2023
Children's Hospital Los Angeles Researchers Develop Clinical Tool to Predict if a Child in Acute Liver Failure Will Need a Transplant
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​​Press Release:
About 50 children are waitlisted for transplants in the U.S. a year due to acute liver failure. Unlike children with chronic liver disease, previously healthy children who develop acute liver failure can suddenly deteriorate. While pediatric acute liver failure has been linked to both viral hepatitis and drug-induced liver injury, at least half of cases have no apparent trigger. When a child in acute liver failure is admitted to the emergency room, the medical team may have only a brief window in which to decide whether a transplant is necessary... Click to read further
23 Oct, 2023
Children's Hospital Los Angeles App Predicts Transplant Urgency for Children in Acute Liver Failure
Image of a child undergoing an abdominal ultrasound
​​Research and Breakthroughs:
Previously healthy children who develop pediatric acute liver failure—an uncommon but life-threatening condition—can need a liver transplant, sometimes at very short notice. But it is hard to know if a particular child will be among the 70% of patients who can recover with their own liver intact. Up to 25% of patients with pediatric acute liver failure will need a liver transplant. Without a transplant, between 10% to 15% of children with acute liver disease will die due to becoming too sick for transplant or not receiving an organ offer in time. Doctors are left to rely on their professional judgement, as these patients can deteriorate unpredictably... Click to read further
01 Jun, 2023
A Potential Biomarker for Pediatric Acute Liver Failure
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​​Research and Breakthroughs:
A tiny population of T-cells could serve as a much-needed biomarker—and a potential therapeutic target—for pediatric acute liver failure, according to new research from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.

The study, led by surgeon-scientist Juliet Emamaullee, MD, PhD, found that T-cells expressing a molecule called programmed cell death protein 1 (PD-1) were present only in the biopsies of children who recovered from acute liver failure without needing a liver transplant... Click to read further
18 May, 2023
Faculty Spotlight: Juliet Emamaullee, MD, PhD
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​​Work that Matters:
“There are things in transplant medicine that haven’t changed in 40 years,” says Dr. Emamaullee. “I don’t want to tell a patient who needs a second transplant, ‘This is the best we can do.’ I find that intensely dissatisfying.”

A surgeon and Research Director for the Division of Abdominal Organ Transplantation, Dr. Emamaullee is taking a high-tech approach to challenge that status quo. Working with the Spatial Biology and Genomics Core (led by Shahab Asgharzadeh, MD), her lab is using imaging mass cytometry to find novel ways to diagnose, treat and predict rejection in children with liver transplants... Click to read further
07 Sep, 2022
Children's Hospital Los Angeles Hosts 26th Annual Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation Meeting
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​​Press Release:
Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) is hosting the 26th annual meeting - Opens in a new window of the Society of Pediatric Liver Transplantation (SPLIT) - Opens in a new window, a multidisciplinary, multicenter consortium focused on optimizing outcomes in pediatric liver transplantation through research, advocacy and dissemination of best practices in the field. Taking place on September 22 – 24 at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel & Spa in Newport Beach, California, the conference will feature four CHLA presenters from multiple divisions – Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition; General Pediatric Surgery; and Anesthesiology Critical Care... Click to read further
23 Dec, 2021
Meet Some of our Research Staff Members
Portrait photo of the research coordinator Carly Weaver
​​Work that Matters:
“I love my day to day,” says Carly. “I love talking with patients and families. Some of the clinical trials I’ve worked on have been organ-saving. The families come in, and they’re just so grateful.”

Carly joined CHLA two years ago after graduating from USC. Although her degree is in linguistics and cognitive science, she realized late in her undergrad studies that she wanted a career in medicine. Working as a clinical research coordinator for the Pediatric Surgery and Infectious Diseases teams (and previously the GI team) has fueled that interest even more—and given her invaluable experience with registry studies, pharmaceutical clinical trials, NIH studies and more... Click to read further
14 Oct, 2021
Looking for Acute Liver Failure Biomarkers in Children
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​​Research and Breakthroughs:
Acute liver failure (ALF) happens very quickly, with few warning signs before a child presents in the emergency room. But there are also few reliable predictors of a child’s outcome. That makes it challenging for physicians to know when it’s best to move forward with a liver transplant—and when it’s best to wait.

But what if specific biomarkers could better predict which children will recover on their own from acute liver failure—and which need lifesaving transplants?... Click to read further
21 Sep, 2021
Living Donor Liver Transplants: Better Outcomes for Children
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​​Press Release:
In the United States alone, 500 children will need a liver transplant this year. While liver tissue can come from living or deceased donors, no studies have demonstrated which of these methods leads to better outcomes for children. In a new publication - Opens in a new window, researchers at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles pooled published results from over 8,000 pediatric patients across four continents. The data reveal that children who receive living donor liver tissue for transplants are far less likely to experience serious complications like organ rejection... Click to read further
02 Nov, 2020
A High-Tech Look at Rejection in Pediatric Liver Transplants
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​​Research and Breakthroughs:
Surgeon-scientist Juliet Emamaullee, MD, PhD, spends much of her time seeing patients and performing pediatric liver transplants at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. But you’ll also find her in the lab—studying how to make those new livers last longer in children.

“About half of the kids we transplant are transplanted before the age of 2,” explains Dr. Emamaullee. “I want their livers to last a lifetime.”... Click to read further
21 Feb, 2019
Liver Cancer Risk not Increased with Pre-Transplant Antiviral
Portrait photo of Dr. Emamaullee
​​Article:
Direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection prior to liver transplant does not increase pre-transplant liver cancer progression or post-transplant recurrence, according to a new study of both waitlist patients and liver transplant (LT) recipients.

The investigators characterized the study as one of the first examinations of the impact of DAA treatment on liver transplant recipients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), both pre- and post-LT... Click to read further
05 Mar, 2017
Memento Mori: The Transplant Project
This documentary was filmed when Dr. Emamaullee was a transplant fellow at the University of Alberta. It was also released as "Transplanting Hope" on PBS NOVA, which was nominated for an Emmy in 2019.
01 Mar, 2016
Celebrating Women's Contributions to Science
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Blog:
​Emamaullee: I am a board certified general surgeon, and I am now working on my subspecialty training in liver and pancreas surgery as well as liver, kidney, and pancreas transplantation. We take care of adult patients with cancers in their liver and pancreas, and we transplant children and adults with liver failure and kidney failure. We also run the world's largest program for clinical islet cell transplantation, which is a treatment for patients with Type 1 diabetes... Click to read further
For additional articles, please see the following: https://www.chla.org/profile/juliet-emamaullee-md-phd-frcsc-facs