The 2017 MedTech Boston 40 Under 40 Healthcare Innovators

Now Associate Surgical Director of Liver Transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Parsia first developed an interest in organ transplantation at Yale medical school during his immunology studies. He pursued this field of study in a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research fellowship at Harvard, where he studied transplant research.

Following training in general surgery at MGH, and an abdominal transplant fellowship at UCSF, Parsia joined the MGH staff in 2011. Parsia has a hard time singling out just one part of his job as the most rewarding. He says, “I get to work with an amazing team at MGH, performing challenging operations for patients in great need, all the while being able to train the next generation of surgeons and getting to lead an effort in cutting edge research. Every aspect is rewarding and something I feel very fortunate to be a part of.”

In the lab, Parsia seeks novel solutions to the biggest problem facing organ transplantation: an organ shortage. His work investigates liver xenotransplantation, with the long term goal of being able to use pig livers in humans. This last year has been successful, and his research team set the world record for pig liver survival in baboon subjects.

When he’s not teaching, operating, or researching, Parsia spends his precious off-call hours with his wife and two sons. And when possible, he likes to sneak in a run along the Charles River.