Dr. Shaf Keshavjee

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, a thoracic surgeon and the director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, has transformed the field of lung transplantation.

Dr. Keshavjee completed his medical training in at the University of Toronto, where he also subsequently trained in general, cardiac and thoracic surgery. As a surgical resident in 1986, he witnessed the world’s first successful double lung transplant at Toronto General Hospital. That event not only inspired him to enter the field of lung transplantation, but made him aware of the need to improve outcomes for lung transplant patients by changing how surgeries were performed.

Early in his career, Dr. Keshavjee developed a solution for preserving donor lungs in a way that enables them to be transported across longer distances. That solution continues to be used by transplantation programs around the world. More recently, he led a team which developed a method for preserving, treating and repairing donor lungs before transplant. Known as the Toronto Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion System, it helps make injured lungs suitable for transplant and significantly increases the number of donor lungs available to patients.

As a senior scientist and head of a large team of researchers Toronto General Hospital Resesarch Institute, Dr. Keshavjee researches support systems, molecular diagnostics and gene therapy to repair organs and to engineer superior organs for transplantation. His clinical practice is in thoracic oncology and lung cancer as well as lung transplantation.