World Leader in Pancreas Transplant and Islet Transplant

The Transplant Center—Doctors, pancreas

David Sutherland, M.D., Ph.D.

Dr. David Sutherland is recognized internationally as one of the world's leading pancreas transplant surgeons. He has earned several of the world's most prestigious awards and honors in the field of medicine.

In 1978, he pioneered the first living donor pancreas transplant. Dr. Sutherland and his medical team continue to offer the valuable option of a living-donor transplant for diabetic patients, thus eliminating the wait for a cadaver pancreas.

He has dedicated the past 30 years to research to cure diabetes. He is dedicated to educating others and to sharing critical information that will lead to the prevention of diabetes and a simpler, more widely available cure. Many of the doctors who trained as residents and fellows with Dr. Sutherland have gone on to develop pancreas transplant programs around the world.

Dr. Sutherland has also heavily contributed to the development of islet transplantation. He has performed more islet transplants than anyone else. He is known among his patients as a man of great humility who is always available to answer their concerns, and who is determined to improve every patient's quality of life.

Specialties

• General Surgery
• Kidney Transplant
• Pancreas Transplant (Surgery Director)
• Pancreatic Surgery

Statistics

• Golf Classic “Fore” Diabetes Research Chair
• Graduated from the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1966
• Completed his Surgical Residency in 1975
• Completed his Transplant Fellowship in 1976
• On the faculty at the University of Minnesota since 1976
• Professor of Surgery since 1984
• Director of the Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation since 1994
• Head of the Division of Transplantation, the largest and oldest pancreas transplant program in the world, since 1995
• Director of the International Pancreas Transplant Registry since 1980
• Past President of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (1991)
• Current President of the Transplantation Society
• Served on editorial boards: Cell Transplantation, Clinical Transplantation, Diabetes, Transplantation, Transplantation Proceedings, and Transplantation Today

He has significant academic interest in an array of transplantation topics with special emphasis in clinical and experimental pancreas and islet transplantation. In addition, Dr. Sutherland is author or co-author on over 1000 publications, including Lessons Learned from More than 1,000 Pancreas Transplants at a Single Institution in the Annals of Surgery, Vo. 233, No. 4, April 2001.