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Shaun Michael Kunisaki

Shaun Michael Kunisaki, MD, MSC

Pediatric General Surgery

Accepting New Patients
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Johns Hopkins Affiliations:
  • Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Faculty

Languages

  • English

14 Insurances Accepted

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Gender

Male

About Shaun Michael Kunisaki

Professional Titles

  • Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Professor
  • Associate Chief, Strategy & Integration, General Pediatric Surgery
  • Director, Fetal Program, General Pediatric Surgery
  • Director, Pediatric Esophageal Surgery, Johns Hopkins Children's Center

Primary Academic Title

Professor of Pediatric Surgery

Background

Shaun M. Kunisaki, MD, MSc, is Professor of Surgery at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, a Robert & Jane Meyerhoff Professor at Johns Hopkins University, and Associate Chief of Strategy and Integration in the Division of General Pediatric Surgery at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Dr. Kunisaki's clinical practice spans the full breadth of pediatric general, thoracic, and fetal surgery, but he is a nationally and internationally recognized authority in the prenatal and postnatal management of congenital thoracic anomalies, including lung malformations, esophageal atresia, and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. He is the Director of the Fetal Program in General Pediatric Surgery and chairs the Prenatal Pediatrics Steering Committee, a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and the Department of Gynecology & Obstetrics at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. As Director of the Pediatric Esophageal Center, he specializes in the management of complex esophageal disorders such as long-gap esophageal atresia. He serves on the Editorial Board of several journals, including Pediatrics and Surgery, and holds senior leadership positions in the American Pediatric Surgical Association (APSA), Section on Surgery of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and the Society of University Surgeons (SUS).

Dr. Kunisaki has published over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters. His laboratory is funded by the National Institutes of Health and is largely focused on using stem cells derived from a patient's own tissues to better understand and treat several important pediatric surgical diseases. His team has developed techniques to reprogram fetal and neonatal tissues into pluripotent stem cells and organoids, and are working with scientists and engineers to improve long-term outcomes for children with severe birth defects, including spina bifida and congenital diaphragmatic hernia. More recently, he founded the Eastern Pediatric Surgery Network (EPSN), a clinical research collaborative composed of pediatric surgeons from over 20 children's hospitals in the country.

A native of southern California, Dr. Kunisaki graduated with honors from Harvard College, the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Harvard Medical School. He completed general surgery residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School followed by a pediatric surgery fellowship at the University of Michigan. He also did additional research fellowships at the Massachusetts General Hospital and at Boston Children's Hospital.

Philanthropy plays a crucial role in the work Dr. Kunisaki does by providing seed funding for research, funding for the best educational resources to train the future generation of pediatric surgeons, and additional support services for families receiving treatment that are not covered by insurance. 

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Research Interests

3D printing, congenital pulmonary malformations, esophageal atresia, lung development in congenital diaphragmatic hernia, perinatal stem cell reprogramming, spinal cord regeneration in spina bifida

Lab Website

Kunisaki Lab - Lab Website

  • The Kunisaki lab is a NIH-funded regenerative medicine group within the Division of General Pediatric Surgery at Johns Hopkins that works at the interface of stem cells, mechanobiology, and materials science. We seek to understand how biomaterials and mechanical forces affect developing tissues relevant to pediatric surgical disorders. To accomplish these aims, we take a developmental biology approach using induced pluripotent stem cells and other progenitor cell populations to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms by which fetal organs develop in disease.

    Our lab projects can be broadly divided into three major areas: 1) fetal spinal cord regeneration 2) fetal lung development 3) esophageal regeneration

    Lab members: Juan Biancotti, PhD (Instructor/lab manager); Annie Sescleifer, MD (postdoc surgical resident); Kyra Halbert-Elliott (med student), Ciaran Bubb (undergrad)

    Recent publications:
    Kunisaki SM, Jiang G, Biancotti JC, Ho KKY, Dye BR, Liu AP, Spence JR. Human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived lung organoids in an ex vivo model of congenital diaphragmatic hernia fetal lung. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2021, PMID: 32949227

    Biancotti JC, Walker KA, Jiang G, Di Bernardo J, Shea LD, Kunisaki SM. Hydrogel and neural progenitor cell delivery supports organotypic fetal spinal cord development in an ex vivo model of prenatal spina bifida repair. Journal of Tissue Engineering 2020, PMID: 32782773.

    Kunisaki SM. Amniotic fluid stem cells for the treatment of surgical disorders in the fetus and neonate. Stem Cells Translational Medicine 2018, 7:767-773

Honors

  • Maryland Stem Cell Research Fund, TEDCO
  • R21 (Principal Investigator), National Institutes of Health (NICHD), National Institutes of Health
  • Castle & Connelly Medical Ltd. Top Doctors, 5/1/18
  • RO1 (Principal Investigator), National Institutes of Health (NICHD), 9/1/17
  • Barwick Scholar Award for Spinal Cord Research, 1/1/15
  • Harold Amos Award, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 1/1/12
  • James C. Carrico Faculty Research Award, American College of Surgeons, 7/1/11

Memberships

  • American College of Surgeons,

    Fellow

  • International Society for Stem Cell Research,

    Member

  • American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Surgery,,

    Member

  • Association for Academic Surgery,

    Member

  • International Pediatric Endosurgery Group,

    Member

  • Society of Black Academic Surgeons,

    Member

  • American Pediatric Surgical Association,

    Member

  • Society of University Surgeons,

    Member

Locations

  1. Rubenstein Child Health Building
    • 200 North Wolfe Street, Rubenstein BLDG Lower Level, Baltimore, MD 21287
    • Johns Hopkins Health Care & Surgery Center — Bethesda
      • 6420 Rockledge Drive, Suite 2300, Bethesda, MD 20817

      Expertise

      Education

      University of Michigan Medicine

      Fellowship, Pediatric Surgery, 2010

      Massachusetts General Hospital

      Residency, General Surgery, 2008

      Harvard Medical School

      Medical Education, MD, 2000

      London School of Economics and Political Science

      Graduate School, MSc, 1995

      Board Certifications

      Pediatric Surgery

      American Board of Surgery, 2012

      Surgery

      American Board of Surgery, 2009

      Insurance

      Johns Hopkins providers accept various commercial health insurance plans. However, they may not be included in all of an insurance company's plans or offerings. This may include Exchange, Medicaid, Medicare, and specific limited benefit plans. Exceptions to participation also exist based on your employer’s benefits package and the provider's location or specialty. Please contact your insurer directly to make sure your doctor is covered by your plan. For more details, please review our Insurance Information.
      Search plans
      • Aetna
      • CareFirst
      • Cigna
      • First Health
      • Geisinger Health Plan
      • HealthSmart/Accel
      • Humana
      • Johns Hopkins Health Plans
      • MultiPlan
      • Pennsylvania's Preferred Health Networks (PPHN)
      • Point Comfort Underwriters
      • Private Healthcare Systems (PHCS)
      • UnitedHealthcare
      • Veteran Affairs Community Care Network (Optum-VACCN)