Dr. Alp Sener

BIOSKETCH

Dr. Alp Sener earned his Biology degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1994. Upon concluding his undergraduate studies, he obtained his PhD in renal physiology in 1999, followed by his MD in 2002 from the University of Calgary. Subsequently, Dr. Sener completed his Urology residency at Western University and became a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2007. Dr. Sener spent two years at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore as the American Society of Transplant Surgeons/Novartis Fellow in Transplantation. While in Maryland, he was trained in kidney and pancreas transplantation and completed a research fellowship in transplant immunology.

Dr. Sener joined the Division of Urology in 2009 and was the first surgeon to receive the Schulich Clinician Scientist award from the Western University. Dr. Sener has been the recipient of local, national and international research contribution awards including the Western University Dean’s Award of Excellence, the Canadian Society of Transplantation Research Excellence Award and the Vanguard Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He has received over $16M in total grant funding as principal investigator or co-investigator, has published 174 peer-reviewed articles and 170 conference abstracts, and has been invited to speak both nationally and internationally on topics ranging from translational transplant research and resident education to physician wellness. Dr. Sener is the Keith and Leanne Lavergne Chairman of Urology at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, Chief of Urology at London Health Sciences Center (LHSC) and St. Joseph’s Health Care London and is the Surgical Director of the Kidney and Pancreas transplant program at LHSC and the Director of the Kidney and Pancreas transplant fellowship program at Western University.

In addition to a general urology and kidney/pancreas transplant directed clinical practice, Dr. Sener maintains an active basic sciences and translational research laboratory focusing on the innate and adaptive immune responses in graft rejection as well as in developing novel methods of mitigating organ injury associated with transplantation. Dr. Sener holds the inaugural Andrew Lazarovits Chair in Immunobiology and Transplantation at Western University. His laboratory has pioneered the use of hydrogen sulphide in mitigating organ injury associated with transplantation, in modulating neovascularization and metastasis of renal cell carcinoma and bladder cancer as well as in mitigating tissue fibrosis following chronic urinary obstruction. Dr. Sener is the founder of two successful medical device start-up companies and holds several patents pertaining to organ preservation and in thermoregulation/transportation.  He is the Founder of the Canadian Association of Chairs of Surgical Research and is heavily involved in promoting research and education through his national and international active roles in both Urology (American Urological Association Research Advocacy Committee, AUA Northeastern Section Board of Directors; Canadian Urological Association Research and Education Committees and as President of the Urological Society for Transplantation and Renal Surgery) and Transplant organizations (Canadian Society of Transplantation Research Committee and American Society of Transplant Surgeons Vanguard Committee).

RESEARCH INTERESTS / SPECIALIZATION:

1.  Surgical Education Research:
    - Use of real-time learner/teacher physiological variables in improving surgical education

2.  Fundamental Sciences and Surgical Innovation:
     - Surgery in mirogravity environments
     - Microbiota and renal transplantation
     - Normothermic organ preservation
     - Application of gasotransmitters in minimizing transplant related organ injury
     - Novel temperature control devices in transportation or biologicals

3. Quality Improvement and Patient Centred Research
     - Impact of hydrogen sulphide organ preservation in clinical transplantation