Lanny DiFranza, MD, has joined the Department of Pathology as Assistant Director of the Renal Pathology Laboratory at Montefiore and Assistant Professor of Pathology at Einstein.
Dr. DiFranza joins us from Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC), where he practiced in a junior attending role and served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology for one year while completing renal pathology fellowship training under Vivette D'Agati, MD, the Delafield Professor of Pathology and Cell Biology. He completed a combined Anatomic and Clinical Pathology residency training at CUIMC in 2022 and earned his medical degree in 2018 from SUNY Downstate College of Medicine.
"A fellowship-trained renal pathologist, Dr. DiFranza has an expertise of high importance to the medical center in supporting the MMC nephrology and renal transplantation programs,” said James Pullman, MD, PhD, Vice-Chair of Anatomic Pathology and Professor of Pathology. "He also brings expertise in cardiac pathology to support the cardiac transplantation program," added Dr. Pullman, a renal and cardiac pathology specialist.
As Assistant Director of the Renal Pathology Laboratory, located in Moses, Dr. DiFranza assists in managing the immunofluorescence and electron microscopy laboratories, overseeing equipment maintenance, leading research initiatives, and supporting renal diagnostics for consulting nephrology departments at White Plains Hospital and Westchester Medical Center. He will also play an integral role in fostering collaborative intradepartmental conferences with clinicians from the Department of Medicine's Divisions of Nephrology and Cardiology. Additionally, he will co-teach the Nephrology course at Einstein alongside Amanda Raff, MD, a Professor of Medicine (Nephrology).
His research focuses on kidney transplantation, diseases affecting native and transplanted kidneys, and the intricate interplay between the immune system and kidney diseases. He has contributed as a first author to numerous peer-reviewed research papers and showcased his literary talents in Brooklyn Stories, an annual journal of poetry, fiction, art, and photography published by medical students at SUNY Downstate.
He has received several honors, including the prestigious Stowell-Orbison Award for his abstract poster, "The Significance of Receiving a Kidney from a Black Donor," presented at the 2023 USCAP meeting.
Posted on: Friday, October 20, 2023