Research Opportunities

The Department of Surgery is committed to improving the future of patient care through research and dissemination. Our faculty have wide-ranging research interests and expertise and welcome and encourage student participation in these efforts.

If you would like to explore research opportunities, please contact Surgresearch@uw.edu and they will put you in contact with faculty who have opportunities for medical students.

Research Program (Clinical and Pre-clinical)

Drs. Mulligan and Hwang lead the preclinical and clinical lung transplant research team at the University of Washington, CT Division. The group is focused on teaching and mentoring students, residents, and fellows in clinical and translational research. Drs. Mulligan and Hwang’s research focuses on immune-based studies as it relates lung transplant and pathogenesis of lung diseases. More specifically, they have pioneered a new arena in immunology that has catapulted their research as one of the leaders at a national level. As a laboratory, the development of the infrastructure creates a unique research environment based on teaching, mentorship, and collaborations including a satellite lab with Dr. James Bryers in Bioengineering. Most recently, the lab has expanded into cardiac focused studies with the addition of Dr. Jay Pal (CT division faculty) to our research group. Development of research tools has been another endeavor expanding research in our group, but also increasing access for other research groups as well. This includes the development of biorepositories for lung and cardiac patients, and clinical databases. The research group has 2 lab spaces: UWMC SLU and on main campus at UWMC (new). We are currently seeking students, residents, and fellows who are interested in getting involved in our expanding research group. Interested individuals please email Dr. Billanna Hwang (bhwang@uw.edu) for more information.