Dr. Chahla’s Research Team 2021 – 2022
Suhas Dasari
Research coordinator
Suhas Dasari is a research coordinator for Dr. Jorge Chahla and Dr. Nikhil Verma at Midwestern Orthopaedics at Rush within the division of sports medicine. Suhas is originally from Boston, MA. He attended the University of California Los Angeles for his undergraduate education, where he graduated magna cum laude with a major in physiological science. He then spent a year working as an emergency medical technician in Los Angeles, CA before returning to Boston to work with Dr. Raj Goyal and Dr. Maryrose Sullivan in the departments of gastroenterology and urology at the Harvard Medical School and Veterans Affairs West Roxbury. He is a current medical student at the Medical College of Wisconsin and has continued to pursue his passion for orthopaedic surgery and academic medicine through dedication to numerous research projects. Suhas is particularly interested in projects that apply orthobiologic interventions to improve patient satisfaction and outcomes as well as projects that incorporate emerging technologies, such as 3D printing, into the design of patient specific constructs. In his free time, Suhas enjoys basketball, football, movies, and exercise. Suhas hopes to pursue his passion for orthopaedic surgery, his desire to provide high quality patient care, and his fascination to advance medicine through research as an eventual orthopaedic surgeon in the field of sports medicine.
Luc Fortier
Research coordinator
Luc Fortier is a research coordinator for Dr. Jorge Chahla and Dr. Nikhil Verma at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush within the sports medicine division. Luc earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Public Health from the University of California at Berkeley, where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with high distinction. Following graduation, he spent a year as a clinical orthopaedic researcher at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, working under the mentorship of Dr. Hyun Bae. He is currently a medical student at Georgetown University School of Medicine, where he was inducted into the Gold Humanism Honor Society and continues to pursue his passion for orthopaedic research by designing and executing numerous publications. While in the nation’s capital, Luc continued his interest in global health by being selected as a Global Health Initiative Fellow, meeting with congressional representatives on Capitol Hill, and helping to organize multiple medical missions. In his free time, Luc enjoys scuba diving, snowboarding, pick-up soccer, and attempting to golf. As a lifelong athlete and sports enthusiast, he is passionate about improving the treatment of sports medicine-related injuries and hopes to continue his research interests through a future career in orthopaedic surgery.
Benjamin Kerzner
Research coordinator
Benjamin Kerzner is a clinical research coordinator for Dr. Jorge Chahla MD PhD and Dr. Nikhil Verma MD at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush in the sports medicine division. He is currently between his third and fourth years of medical school at Rush Medical College and is an alumnus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison where he holds a degree in microbiology with honors in the liberal arts. His previous research includes implementing a reliable and reproducible critical sized segmental femoral defect model in rats to study bone healing and application of biomaterials in nonunion on the orthopaedic trauma service at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While at Rush, he has been involved in research ranging from surgical reimbursement to implant outcomes and survivorship to epidemiological studies for hip and knee replacement under the mentorship of Dr. Brett Levine MD MS. Ben’s research interests include clinical outcomes following ACL reconstruction, epidemiology, social media in orthopaedics, and operative techniques. Prior to beginning medical school, Ben coached and was involved in running a special olympics organization for over a decade in Chicago and Madison. In his free time, Ben enjoys volunteering with special olympics, running, cycling, spending time with friends/family, and rooting on the Badgers.
Zeeshan Khan
Research coordinator
Zeeshan Khan is a clinical research coordinator for Dr. Jorge Chahla and Dr. Nikhil Verma at Midwest Orthopaedics at Rush within the sports medicine division. He graduated from The University of Chicago in 2021, where he obtained a Bachelor’s of Arts in Neuroscience with Magna Cum Laude honors. During his undergraduate career, Zeeshan was a research assistant within UChicago’s Operative Performance Research Institute within the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and Rehabilitation Medicine. His research interests include clinical outcomes, orthobiologics, and healthcare delivery science. Zeeshan hopes to pursue a career in medicine in the future by building on this experience. In his free time, Zeeshan enjoys playing basketball and rooting for his Chicago Bulls and Cleveland Browns.