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Timothy Billiar, MD

  • George Vance Foster Professor and Chair, Department of Surgery
  • Distinguished Professor of Surgery
  • Vice-President and Chief Academic Officer, University of Pittsburgh Physicians
  • Associate Medical Director, UPMC International and Commercial Services Division

    Education & Training

  • Medical School – University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine – MD
  • Residency – University of Minnesota Hospitals & Clinics – Surgery
  • Residency – University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine – Surgery
  • Fellowship – University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine – Surgery Research
Research Grants

NIH Grants: T32, R35

Research Summary

Dr. Billiar has had a long-standing interest in the stress and immune responses in acute critical illness.  Specifically, his laboratory carries out studies in both humans as well as animal models of disease to establish the mechanisms of immune dysregulation following trauma or sepsis.  In addition, his laboratory works on stratification models to prognosticate for the complicated clinical course after severe injury.  His recent work has appeared in Ummunity, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, and The British Journal of Pharmacology.

Representative Publications
  1. Wang R, Li Y, Tsung A, Huang H, Du Q, Yang M, Deng M, Xiong S, Wang X, Zhang L, Geller DA, Cheng B, Billiar TR. iNOS promotes CD24(+)CD133(+) liver cancer stem cell phenotype through a TACE/ADAM17-dependent Notch signaling pathway. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2018 Oct 23;115(43): E10127-E10136. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1722100115. Epub 2018 Oct 8. PubMed PMID: 30297396; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6205478.
  2. Sperry JL, Guyette FX, Brown JB, Yazer MH, Triulzi DJ, Early-Young BJ, Adams PW, Daley BJ, Miller RS, Harbrecht BG, Claridge JA, Phelan HA, Witham WR, Putnam AT, Duane TM, Alarcon LH, Callaway CW, Zuckerbraun BS, Neal MD, Rosengart MR, Forsythe RM, Billiar TR, Yealy DM, Peitzman AB, Zenati MS; PAMPer Study Group. Prehospital Plasma during Air Medical Transport in Trauma Patients at Risk for Hemorrhagic Shock. N Engl J Med. 2018 Jul 26;379(4):315-326. doi: 10.1056/NEJMoa1802345. PubMed PMID: 30044935.
  3. Deng M, Tang Y, Li W, Wang X, Zhang R, Zhang X, Zhao X, Liu J, Tang C, Liu Z, Huang Y, Peng H, Xiao L, Tang D, Scott MJ, Wang Q, Liu J, Xiao X, Watkins S, Li J, Yang H, Wang H, Chen F, Tracey KJ, Billiar TR, Lu B. The Endotoxin Delivery Protein HMGB1 Mediates Caspase-11-Dependent Lethality in Sepsis. Immunity. 2018 Oct 16;49(4):740-753.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2018.08.016. Epub 2018 Oct 9. PubMed PMID: 30314759; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6300139.
  4. Wang R, Geller DA, Wink DA, Cheng B, Billiar TR. Nitric oxide and hepatocellular cancer. Br J Pharmacol. 2019 Aug 18. doi: 10.1111/bph.14838. [Epub ahead of print] Review. PubMed PMID: 31423564.
  5. Manson J, Hoffman R, Chen S, Ramadan MH, Billiar TR. Innate-Like Lymphocytes Are Immediate Participants in the Hyper-Acute Immune Response to Trauma and Hemorrhagic Shock. Front Immunol. 2019 Jul 11;10:1501. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.01501. eCollection 2019. PubMed PMID: 31354702; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6638190.
  6. Deng M, Scott MJ, Fan J, Billiar TR. Location is the key to function: HMGB1 in sepsis and trauma-induced inflammation. J Leukoc Biol. 2019 Jul;106(1):161-169. doi: 10.1002/JLB.3MIR1218-497R. Epub 2019 Apr 4. Review. PubMed PMID: 30946496; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6597316.
  7. Lamparello AJ, Namas RA, Constantine G, McKinley TO, Elster E, Vodovotz Y, Billiar TR. A conceptual time window-based model for the early stratification of trauma patients. J Intern Med. 2019 Jul;286(1):2-15. doi: 10.1111/joim.12874. Epub 2019 Jan 9. Review. PubMed PMID: 30623510.
  8. Lamparello AJ, Namas RA, Abdul-Malak O, Vodovotz Y, Billiar TR. Young and Aged Blunt Trauma Patients Display Major Differences in Circulating Inflammatory Mediator Profiles after Severe Injury. J Am Coll Surg. 2019 Feb;228(2):148-160.e7. doi: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2018.10.019. Epub 2018 Nov 16. PubMed PMID: 30448299.