Gerald Brandacher, MD, FAST is Professor of Translational and Experimental Transplant Surgery, Executive Vice Chair for Research and Co-Director of the Department of Visceral Transplant, and Thoracic Surgery, and Scientific Director of the Daniel Swarovski Transplantation Research Laboratory at Innsbruck Medical University. He is also a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and serves as the Scientific Director of the reconstructive transplantation program at Johns Hopkins. Dr. Brandacher received his medical degree from Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, School of Medicine, and completed further surgical training at the Center of Operative Medicine, Department of Visceral, Transplant and Thoracic Surgery, at Innsbruck Medical University.

Prior to returning to the Medical University of Innsbruck in 2023, Dr. Brandacher was scientific director, and a key member of the reconstructive transplant programs at the University of Pittsburgh and at Johns Hopkins University. At these programs he was instrumental in designing a novel cell-based immunomodulatory treatment protocol for VCA and was also part of the surgical team performing the first bilateral hand transplant and first forearm transplant in the US. In 2018, Dr. Brandacher was a core member of the team executing the world’s first total male genital transplant. Dr. Brandacher was elected as Chair of the VCA Committee of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT) in 2015, and is a Founding Member of the American Society of Reconstructive Transplantation (ASRT), for which he currently serves as immediate Past President.