Mentor

      Anil Seetharam, MD
      Transplant Hepatology

Fellows

Mentor

      Justin Reynolds, MD
      Hepatologist
      Gastroenterologist

Justin A. Reynolds, MD, is the Medical Director of Liver Transplant in the Center for Liver Disease and Transplantation at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center. Dr. Reynolds is board certified in Internal Medicine, Gastroenterology, and Transplant Hepatology. 

Dr. Reynolds received his medical degree from the University of Michigan. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at Stanford University. He then completed a fellowship in Gastroenterology at the University of California Los Angeles and an additional fellowship in Transplant Hepatology at the Mayo Clinic.

Dr. Reynolds’ expertise includes liver disease and transplantation. He is a member of the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases, American Society of Transplantation, European Association for the Study of the Liver, and the International Liver Transplantation Society. He has also authored and contributed to multiple book chapters and research studies presented at both national and international meetings.

Fellows

Mentor

      Hugo E. Vargas, MD

I am very interested in the manner in which Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) injures liver grafts after transplantation. Along with my collaborators Drs. Laskus and Rakela we have been making inroads into the mechanisms by which HCV behaves after liver transplantation. We have described the effect of viral genotypes on the course of post-transplantation hepatitis, the behavior of the virus when two viral strains are present in the recipient of a transplant and extra hepatic infection with HCV. We have pioneered the effort with respect to central nervous system infection with HCV in this patient population. I have obtained NIH funding to study the importance of viral quasispecies development in two viral regions during the course of the post-transplantation period. My clinical practice has delved in to the more practical issues of post liver transplantation HCV infection, where I am an active participant in several trials of antiviral therapy in this clinical setting. We have published several articles that deal with the challenges of treating HCV in this patient population.

The second area of interest is the effect of the immunosuppressive regimen on viral behavior after liver transplantation. Collaborating with investigators from 15 centers in the United States, I hope to characterize the effect three different regimens of immunosuppresion (anti-rejection medications) have on viral behavior. We are actively studying the virus from 312 patients randomly assigned to one of these three regimens and followed long-term. The long-term objective is to formulate optimal immunosuppression for patients transplanted for HCV-related disease.

The third area of interest is the hypothesis that HCV infects the brain in patients who do not have immune impairment. I have funding to study the neuropsychiatric, radiological, immunological and virological characteristics of patients infected with HCV. My study aims to link well described changes in this population of patients with evidence of CNS infection. I am very excited about the possibility of developing this important area of research.

Fellows

Mentor

      Juan Gallegos-Orozco, MD

Dr. Juan F. Gallegos-Orozco graduated from medical school in Mexico and completed post-graduate medical education in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology in both Mexico and the United States, where he completed fellowship training in Transplant Hepatology at the prestigious Mayo School of Graduate Medical Education, Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, Arizona in June 2012. His main clinical and research interests include the management of chronic viral hepatitis, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and liver transplantation. He has published many research articles on these and other topics and has authored several book chapters pertaining to liver diseases. Dr. Gallegos-Orozco joined the Division of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition at the University of Utah School of Medicine in July, 2012 and is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine and serves as the Medical Director for Hepatology and Liver Transplant.

Fellows

• Sentia Iriana, MD

      Babu Mohan, MD
      Gastroenterology Fellow, Division of Gastroenterology & Hepatology,
      University of Utah Health – School of Medicine

INTERESTS & CAREER GOALS
Explore and expand the applications of artificial intelligence in Gastroenterology. Specifically, my
interests are on the application of convolutional neural network-based machine learning
algorithms, in computer vision and natural language processing. The field of Gastroenterology is unique
owing to the use of patient clinical information and endoscopy-based image/ video inputs to formulate a
patient diagnosis; and therefore, is an ideal area where artificial intelligence can make a big impact. If
combined with medical internet of things, the possible outreach of AI in GI seems exciting.