Category: New Faculty

Please join us in welcoming Filipe La Fuente de Carvalho, MD, PhD, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Filipe La Fuente de Carvalho, MD, PhD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Urology

Dr. de Carvalho received his medical degree from the University of Porto School of Medicine in Portugal. He completed residency training in general surgery and urology at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital and a urology residency at Centro Hospitalar do Porto, Portugal. He was a postdoctoral fellow and holds a PhD from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Most recently, he completed the Combined Harvard Program in Urologic Oncology at Mass General Hospital and the Brigham.

Dr. de Carvalho’s research interests integrate genomic and transcriptomic data with pre-clinical models to define molecular mechanisms of cancer progression and resistance to therapy, with a particular focus on bladder cancer. Dr. de Carvalho has been recognized as a Bladder Cancer Advocacy Network Young Investigator and a Karin Grunebaum Cancer Research Foundation Faculty Research Fellow. He is also the recipient of an Early-Career Investigator Award by the American Urological Association (AUA) Research Forum.

Please join us in welcoming Mark J. Cunningham, MD, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Mark J. Cunningham, MD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery

Dr. Cunningham graduated with a Bachelor of Science in aeronautical engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and received his medical degree from the University of Miami School of Medicine. He completed residency training in general surgery at Boston University Boston Medical Center and a residency in cardiovascular and thoracic surgery at Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California. Prior to med school, he worked as an aerospace engineer in the Space Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center designing future space transportation systems. 

He is board certified in general surgery and thoracic surgery. Dr. Cunningham is a member of various societies and professional institutions, including the American Association of Thoracic Surgeons (AATS), the Surgeons Society for Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the International Society of Minimally Invasive Cardiac Surgery (ISMICS), and the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplant (ISHLT).

Before joining the Brigham, Dr. Cunningham worked as attending staff at LAC+USC Medical Center, Huntington Memorial Hospital and the Keck Hospital of USC, where he served as the director of the Cardiac Surgery Heart Program. He was an associate professor of surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Keck School of Medicine, where he also served as director of the Mechanical Circulatory Support Program and surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program.

Dr. Cunningham’s research and clinical interests include ventricular assist devices, cardiopulmonary transplantation and minimally invasive cardiac surgery.

Please join us in welcoming Ealaf Shemmeri, MD, as a new faculty member in the Department of Surgery.

Ealaf Shemmeri, MD, PHARMD
Associate Surgeon, Division of Thoracic and Cardiac Surgery

Dr. Shemmeri received her undergraduate degrees from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. She received a Doctor of Pharmacy from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and her medical degree from Ross University School of Medicine. She completed residency training at North Shore University Hospital Long Island Jewish Medical Center and a fellowship in cardiothoracic surgery at Albany Medical Center.

Dr. Shemmeri also completed a clinical and research fellowship in thoracic and foregut surgery at the Swedish Cancer Institute and Medical Center, a critical care clinical pharmacy residency at the University of Maryland Medical Center and a minimally invasive thoracic surgery fellowship at the Brigham.

Her clinical interests focus on minimally invasive thoracic surgery and foregut and her research interests include clinical outcomes in foregut, specifically achalasia and esophageal cancer.