The Division of Nephrology at Washington University in St. Louis is pleased to welcome our 2021 renal transplant fellows.
Karen Marie G. Flores, MD, comes to us from the nephrology fellowship program at Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Columbus. Karen earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Trinity University of Asia – St. Luke’s College of Nursing in Quezon City, Philippines,and her medical degree from the University of the Philippines College of Medicine in Manila. She completed her residency at Philippine General Hospital.
It was in her second year as an internal medicine resident at Philippine General Hospital, the largest tertiary hospital in the Philippines serving indigent patients, that Karen developed an interest in nephrology. While she found treating kidney injury and disease challenging and exciting, the work was also heartbreaking. Many of her patients’ resources were so limited that they often had to pay the cost of diagnostics and treatment from their own pockets. Karen often volunteered in fundraising activities so that her patients could afford to undergo a kidney biopsy or receive a temporary dialysis catheter.
Karen realized that kidney transplantation was never an option for her patients and was not going to be part of her training since only a limited number of kidney transplantations were performed in her country every year. Her experience in that resource-limited setting encouraged her to seek further clinical training and exposure as a renal fellow at Wexner Medical Center. This is where transplant nephrology captivated her and inspired her to advance the practice of nephrology back in the Philippines.
“Witnessing an ESRD patient getting a kidney transplant and leaving the hospital with a new breath of life brought me joy,” she says. “Every time I see a transplanted patient doing well, I see hope for my patients back home.”
When not working, Karen enjoys playing tennis and traveling.
Mohamed “Mo” Ibrahim, MD, comes to us from the nephrology fellowship program at the University at Buffalo, SUNY. Mo earned his medical degree and medical training from Ain Shams University Faculty of Medicine in Cairo, Egypt.
“Transplant nephrology is more than a career … it is a calling.” From a young age, Mo was moved by the suffering of children with renal defects, many of whom could not afford medical care, were labeled as outcasts, and were not able to lead anything close to a normal life. Witnessing this suffering inspired Mo to make a difference through his clinical practice and through biomedical research and innovation. He sought out the best medical training available.
Mo is passionate about biomedical research. As a research fellow at Duke University Medical Center, his research resulted in the publication of numerous manuscripts, grants, patents and many oral, poster and invited presentations including a TEDx talk. He developed the first small animal model to study the pathogenesis of hypertrophic scarring, a debilitating disorder about which little is known. In addition, Mo and his colleagues introduced a novel technique for measuring tissue oxygen tension to monitor hypoxia and tissue viability, for which he was the lead inventor of two patents. He is also pursuing a PhD in bio-sensing from Erasmus University in Rotterdam. Mo is deeply interested in advancing medical technology and is passionate about improving the standard of care in transplant monitoring and survival. See here for a list of Mo’s publications.
Mo is also the founder of MedicalVideos.com, which he started in 2007 while he was in medical school to provide medical students and healthcare professionals a platform to upload and share educational medical videos in all principles of medicine and science.
“For me, transplant nephrology is the realization of a lifelong dream. The dream is for myself and for my patients, those I treat during my own lifetime, as well as those who will come after me.”
Follow @DrMoIbrahim and @WUNephrology on Twitter, and visit our division on Facebook at WashU Nephrology.