Maria Siemionow

Dr. Siemionow spent decades investigating the effects of chimeric cells – created by fusion of donor and recipient bone marrow derived stem cells – on the immune system’s natural attack response to foreign tissues and donor organs. If the immune system leaves these chimeric cells alone, as if they were an original part of the body, then the implanted donor tissue may be spared a full-blown rejection response.

Dr. Siemionow is the past president of the American Society for Reconstructive Transplantation and past president of the International Hand and Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Society and the American Society for Peripheral Nerve. She is a member of the academic-industry team known as the Warrior Restoration Consortium, which focuses on the development of clinical therapies and new treatments for wounded soldiers as a part of the Armed Forces Institute for Regenerative Medicine.

Dr. Siemionow serves on the editorial board of nine professional society journals and is an ad hoc reviewer for six professional society journals. She has published more than 320 scientific articles and has edited three plastic surgery textbooks, two popular science books, and has contributed to over 100 published book chapters. She has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN with Sanjay Gupta, Good Morning America, and many others. In 2008 she led a team of surgeons at the Cleveland Clinic that performed the first face transplant in the United States. For her achievements, Dr. Siemionow received multiple national and international awards and recognitions including: Outstanding Achievement in Clinical Research Award from the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation (2010), the American Society of Plastic Surgeons’ Board of Trustees Special Achievement Award (2011), the Casimir Funk National Science Award (2013). In 2014, Dr Siemionow received the Great Immigrants Award from the Carnegie Foundation of New York and in 2018 she was awarded a title of the Business Women of the Year by the Polish Business Foundation.