NEW FACULTY
NEW FACULTY
SAULAT SAJJAD SHEIKH , MBBS
The UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute is pleased to welcome Assistant Professor Saulat Sajjad Sheikh , MBBS , to the UAB Division of Transplantation , where she serves as one of the first female transplant surgeons from her home country of Pakistan . Her areas of interest include liver and kidney transplantation , pediatric transplantation , live-donor liver and kidney transplantation , and hepatobiliary surgery .
Dr . Sheikh attended medical school at the Aga Khan University in Karachi , Pakistan . She completed general surgery residencies at York Hospital in Pennsylvania , Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Michigan , and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in El Paso . She graduated from UAB ’ s Abdominal Transplantation and Hepatobiliary Surgery Fellowship in 2020 .
Dr . Sheikh overcame numerous personal and professional barriers in pursuing her dream of becoming a transplant surgeon . The only female child in a conservative family , she says she was lucky that her parents permitted her to capitalize on the available opportunities . Both her mother and father are retired physicians — an OB / GYN and family medicine doctor , respectively .
“ My parents were and continue to be supportive of me pursuing my dreams to become a transplant surgeon , even though they often heard comments from the community doubting my career and life path ,” Dr . Sheikh says . “ When I first started out on this journey , it felt like a distant dream , but now here I am , living my dream every day .”
THOMAS KALEEKAL , MD
The UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute is pleased to welcome Associate Professor Thomas Kaleekal , MD , to the UAB Division of Pulmonary , Allergy , and Critical Care Medicine , where he serves as medical director for lung transplantation and advanced lung disease . Dr . Kaleekal served as medical director of the lung transplant program at the Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey from 2018 to 2020 , and he held the same position at Houston Methodist Hospital from 2013 to 2018 .
Dr . Kaleekal ’ s clinical and research interests include advanced lung failure therapies , with a particular focus on lung transplantation and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation ( ECMO ) support . He has published and presented work on lung transplant outcomes and survival , as well as chronic lung allograft dysfunction ( CLAD ), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease ( COPD ), and acute respiratory distress syndrome ( ARDS ).
Dr . Kaleekal received his medical degree in 1998 from the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi , India . After completing residency training in internal medicine at the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn , he spent an additional year there as the program ’ s chief medical resident . In 2005 , he completed his fellowship in Houston at Baylor College of Medicine ’ s Section of Pulmonary , Critical Care , and Sleep Medicine , after which he secured a faculty position at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee .
18 UAB CTI Report