Dr. Azimzadeh is Associate Professor of Surgery at University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD, USA. She has a very strong track record in xenotransplantation, with many important publications since 1994. She is an active member of the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA) Council, first as IXA Councilor 2011-2013, and currently as the IXA Secretary-Treasurer (2013-present). She is a regular contributor to Conferences of the IXA, American Society of Transplantation and The Transplantation Society, a consistent reviewer for several transplantation journals and serves on the editorial board of Xenotransplantation. Her main research interests are in the areas of cardiac allotransplantation and pulmonary xenotransplantation, with particular emphasis in costimulation blockade, glycobiology and coagulation dysregulation.