Translational Medicine is the emerging field which focuses on using what is learned in pre-clinical studies to do smarter things in the clinic. Translational Medicine helps in the course of predicting, preventing, diagnosing, and treating diseases. Translational Medicine also uses what can be gleaned in clinical studies to sharpen and improve what is done in pre-clinical efforts to discover new medicines. Translational medicine represents a paradigm shift in the biomedical research enterprise.
Message from the Chair
Welcome to the Department of Translational Medicine.
Translational medicine is a young and evolving entity in medicine, often considered a transformation of laboratory findings to clinical applications to treat patients with novel approaches, from bench to bedside. However, I view translational medicine as the reverse, namely new disease manifestations and our attempt to define these new findings through basic laboratory research, from the bedside to the bench. For these translations, it is essential to provide both research laboratories and clinical facilities.
Florida International University and the Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine (HWCOM) provide all the opportunities for basic researchers to develop their research programs and succeed. The Miami Cancer Institute (MCI), where I serve as Deputy Director and Chief of Hematologic Oncology and Blood & Marrow Transplant, is part of Baptist Health South Florida, the largest health care organization in the region. Both are well-established and successful clinical entities providing exciting novel and innovative treatment approaches and excellence of care to all patients in Florida and beyond.
A close and developing collaboration between HWCOM and MCI provides a unique opportunity to build a successful translational medicine program. I was privileged to oversee and lead clinical trials at MCI for the treatment of COVID-19 infected patients. In response to the COVID crisis, we have embarked on an unprecedented opportunity to establish sophisticated basic research performed in Dean Robert Sackstein’s laboratory at FIU with daily specimen collected from the blood of COVID infected patients hospitalized at Baptist Health.
This research study will not only provide us with insights into the immune defects induced by the SARS-CoV-2 virus, but it has the potential to assess how and to what degree these promising treatment approaches can reverse the viral effects and explain the outcome. Translational Medicine at its best!
Guenther Koehne, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor and Chairman of the Department of Translational Medicine
Contact us
Florida International University
Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine
Department of Translational Medicine
11200 SW 8th Street, AHC2 690
Tel: 305-348-2047
Fax: 305-348-4331
Faculty & staff
Martinez Elejalde, Jose M, MD, FACC, FACP
Assistant ProfessorAileen Maria Marty, MD, FACP
ProfessorPaulo H. M. Chaves, MD, PhD
Director, Benjamin Leon Jr Family Center for Geriatric Research & [...]Amalia M. Landa-Galindez,, MD, FACP
Associate Professor and Chief of the Division of Internal MedicineJorge Camilo Mora
Director of Geriatric Medical Education; Strand Leader for Professional [...]Aileen Andreu, MD, FACP
Assistant ProfessorFrank Vincent Lefevre, MD
Assistant ProfessorKimberly Justin
Senior Executive AssistantAriele Anne Riviere
Coordinator of Administrative ServicesAron Wayne Berkman, MD, PhD
Head of Hematology/Oncology; and Associate ProfessorAbraham Bichachi
Assistant ProfessorAnnellys Hernandez, MD, MS
Assistant ProfessorBianca Alfonso, MD
Assistant ProfessorCarlos Gabriel Torres-Viera, MD, MPH
Assistant ProfessorDiane Rachel Krieger, MD
Head of Endocrinology; and Associate ProfessorJose Manuel Muñiz, MD
Associate ProfessorAdnan Muhammad Aziz, MD, FACP
Assistant ProfessorJorge Murillo, MD
Associate ProfessorShara D. Steiner Brody, DO, MACM
Assistant ProfessorLara Paraskos, MD
InstructorRobert Sackstein
Dean and Senior Vice President for Health Affairs, and ProfessorKyle Chandler Martin
Sr. Research & Lab SpecialistCharles J. Dimitroff, PhD
Executive Associate Dean for Research; Director, Translational Glycobiology Institute [...]Winston Elliott
Postdoctoral AssociateAsmi Chakraborty
Postdoctoral AssociateAngela Bernasconi
Research Technician ICaleb Staudinger
Lab Manager IIGloria Coronel-Couto, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor; and Internal Medicine Clerkship Assistant DirectorGuenther Koehne, MD, PhD
Professor and Chair of the Department of Translational Medicine, [...]Avelino Ruben Caride, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor; Medical Director, Ambulatory CareKevin Brown Chandler, PhD
Assistant ProfessorZhongpeng Lu, PhD
Research AssociateMario E. Sanchez
Research Compliance AdministratorVeera Manukonda
Research AssociateKaren Abbott, PhD
Associate ProfessorNoel Christopher Barengo, MD, PhD, MPH
Associate ProfessorGrettel Castro, MPH
Research Analyst IIPriscilla Chaves, MBA, MPH, CLSSBB
Director of OperationsSantiago De Solo, MD
Assistant Professor; Head of RheumatologyGuillermo Izquierdo Pretel, MD, FACP
Assistant ProfessorJuan Manuel Lozano Leon, MD, MSc
Chief of the Division of Medical and Population Health [...]Raul Moas, MD
Assistant ProfessorPura E. Rodriguez de la Vega, MPH
Research Specialist IJuan Gabriel Ruiz Pelaez, MD
ProfessorDaniel De Jesus Segui
Assistant ProfessorLaura Ochoa
Research Technician ILigia Perez, PhD, MBA, MLS
Research Analyst IIAlfredo Hernandez, MD
Assistant Professor, Head of GastroenterologyRalph Levy, MD
Assistant ProfessorSanaz Kashan, MD, FACP
Assistant Professor