The UAB Department of Surgery is honored to welcome three new faculty members – Drs. Jonathan Antonetti, Sophie Dream, Daniele Zanella – and announce the assistant professor appointment of Dr. Sergio Acuna Mancilla.
About Dr. Jonathan Antonetti
Jonathan Antonetti, M.D., has joined the UAB Division of Plastic Surgery as an assistant professor.
After attending medical school at the UAB Marnix E. Heersink School of Medicine, Dr. Antonetti completed his general surgery residency at Brookwood Baptist Health. He then completed his plastic surgery residency at UAB, during which time he was a resident educator and taught UAB Stryker craniofacial/ hand plastic surgery courses.
About Dr. Sophie Dream
Sophie Dream, M.D., MPH, will now be serving as an associate professor in the UAB Division of Breast & Endocrine Surgery.
Dr. Dream completed her fellowship in endocrine surgery at UAB in 2019 and then served as section chief of the Section of Endocrine Surgery in the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW), as well as program director for the MCW Comprehensive Endocrine Surgery Fellowship, prior to returning to UAB.
Her clinical practice focuses on the surgical treatment of benign and malignant disorders of thyroid, parathyroid, and adrenal glands. Dr. Dream pioneered thyroid radiofrequency ablation and grew the non-surgical thyroid intervention program at MCW.
Her focus of investigation is in identifying and quantifying the more elusive impacts primary hyperparathyroidism has on quality of life, in order to inform the operative indications for parathyroidectomy.
She is an Associate Editor for Clinical Thyroidology and serves on the Editorial Boards of Surgery, American Journal of Surgery, Journal of Surgical Research, and Surgical Oncology Insight.
About Dr. Daniele Zanella
Daniele Zanella, Ph.D., has joined the UAB Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery as an instructor.
He obtained is Ph.D. in the experimental and translational medicine program from the University of Insubria in 2019. His graduate work developed a model system based on Xenopus laevis oocytes and electrophysiology to study membrane-nanoparticle interactions.
As a postdoctoral scholar in Dr. Aurelio Galli’s lab, he investigated the reward system in the context of the gut-brain axis, focusing primarily on psychostimulant addiction and its modulation by surgical and pharmacological interventions.
Dr. Zanella’s current focus is on the development of a novel cellular stimulation platform, with applications spanning from neuromodulation to cancer treatment. His overarching goal is to apply his cross-disciplinary expertise to translational research that can lead to significant improvements in the scientific and medical practice.
Dr. Sergio Acuna Mancilla
Sergio Acuna Mancilla, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed to the rank of assistant professor in the UAB Division of Transplantation.
Dr. Acuna Mancilla obtained his medical degree from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana. He then completed his general surgery residency and Ph.D. in clinical epidemiology at the University of Toronto. He also completed additional postgraduate education at UAB as a fellow through the Division of Transplantation's Abdominal Transplant Surgery Fellowship.
Upon the completion of his fellowship, Dr. Acuna Mancilla began his role as a faculty member at UAB as a clinical instructor in December 2024.
He is a member of the following societies: American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS), the Americas Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary Association (AHPBA), and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada (FRCSC).