Dr. Cypel is a Staff Thoracic Surgeon at University Health Network (UHN) and Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. He is the director of the ECLS program at UHN. He received his MD in 1999 and completed his general surgery and thoracic surgery residency program in 2004. In 2005 he started his post-doctoral research fellowship at the Latner Thoracic Surgery Laboratory. During this time, he developed a new method of lung preservation and donor lung repair called Ex Vivo Lung Perfusion (EVLP). This method is now used clinically in Toronto and in many other centers, and has significantly increased the number of transplantable lungs.
He subsequently performed a 3 years fellowship in thoracic oncology, cardiac surgery, and lung transplantation at the University of Toronto. During his training, he has received 13 awards, including the McMurrich Award given for the best fundamental science work by any level trainee in the Department of Surgery and the 1st Annual Zane Cohen Clinical Fellowship Achievement Award. He also achieved a large number of 1st and senior author peer review publications including high impact journals such as Science TM and The New England Journal of Medicine. His main clinical interests are in minimal invasive thoracic surgery for lung cancer, treatment of pulmonary metastases, artificial lung devices and lung transplantation.
Dr. Cypel currently holds the prestigious Canada Research Chair in Lung Transplantation from the Government of Canada and he is the principal investigator in very innovative clinical trials, such as the use of uncontrolled donation after cardio-circulatory death for lung transplantation and in vivo lung perfusion with chemotherapy to treat patients with lung metastases. He is a Member of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) and a Fellow from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC).
His list of publications can be found at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=cypel%2Cmarcelo
Selected publications from PubMed
The effect of a 2-surgeon review system on donor offers in lung transplantation at a high-volume center.
Gil-Barturen M, Yamamoto H, Pessoa BM, Da Silva N, Wakeam E, Yeung JC, Pierre A, de Perrot M, Yasufuku K, Waddell TK, Shelton C, Donahoe L, Keshavjee S, Cypel M
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2026 Sep 1 pii: S0022-5223(26)01244-4. doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2026.08.025.
The need for clarity among the shadows: It is time to further refine the definition of primary graft dysfunction in lung transplant recipients.
Trindade AJ, Shaver CM, Demarest CT, Erasmus D, Keller BC, Langer NB, Kukreja J, Hays S, Schaheen L, Campo-Canaveral de la Cruz JL, Alonso-Moralejo R, Crowley Carrasco S, Laporta Hernandez R, Akbarshahi H, Lindstedt S, Chang SH, Angel LF, Benazzo A, Jaksch P, Sidhu A, Cypel M, Bacchetta M, Hoetzenecker K
J Heart Lung Transplant. 2026 Sep;45(9):1522-1525 doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2026.05.010.
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) 2026 Expert Consensus Document: Guidelines for donor/recipient size-matching in lung transplantation.
Chang S, Geraci T, Stokes JW, Ahmad U, Catarino P, Ceulemans LJ, Cypel M, Halloran K, Haney J, Hartwig MG, Keshavjee S, Lemaitre P, Novoa N, Puri V, Sato M, Schaheen LW, Whitson B, Hoetzenecker K
J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg. 2026 Sep;172(3):715-730.e2 doi: 10.1016/j.jtcvs.2026.03.620.
Impact of ex vivo lung perfusion evaluation on donation after circulatory death in lung transplantation.
Gil-Barturen M, Donahoe L, de Perrot M, Yasufuku K, Pierre A, Wakeam E, Waddell TK, Keshavjee S, Cypel M, Yeung JC
JTCVS Tech. 2026 Aug;38:102416 doi: 10.1016/j.xjtc.2026.102416.
Outcomes of lung transplantation using TorEx ex-vivo lung perfusion.
Yamamoto H, Ali A, Siebiger G, Wakeam E, Donahoe L, Yeung JC, Pierre A, de Perrot M, Yasufuku K, Waddell TK, Keshavjee S, Cypel M
JHLT Open. 2026 Aug;13:100615 doi: 10.1016/j.jhlto.2026.100615.
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