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Research

In a little over 50 years, solid organ transplantation has become a common life saving procedure that is performed more than 100,000 times per year globally.  Many of the innovations in surgical procedures, immunosuppression, and patient care enabling this success was driven by the research programs here at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute (STI).  During the same time period, allogeneic stem cell transplantation (AlloHCT), where stem and immune cells from a donor are used to treat caners and bone marrow disorders, has also become routine.

While transplant researchers have been incredibly successful, there is still plenty of work to be done to reach satisfatory outcomes for today's transplant recipients.  Our current research efforts ranges from making discoveries that answer fundamental questions in transplantation biology to completing innovative translational and clinical studies that shape the immediate future of transplant medicine.  Unfortunately, numerous barriers still remain that prevent one graft from lasting for the life of our solid organ transplant recipients.  Likewise, toxicities and side effects from required immunosuppression persist after solid organ transplantation, and prevent widespread transplantation of non-life sustaining grafts, such as the face or limbs.  AlloHCT recipients often suffer a condition referred to as a Graft-versus-Host Disease, where immune cells needed for engraftment and malignancy removal attack vital recipient tissues.

Emerging roles of T cells in Transplantation
Reparative Mechanisms in Tx
Memory T cell
Follicular Helper T cells
Regulatory T cells
Mechanisms of Graft Vs. Host Disease and Graft vs. Leukemia
Computational Immunogenomics
Cytokine Biology

Emerging roles of B cells in Transplantation
Regulatory B cells
B cells biology
Alloantibodies

Discovery of Innate Alloimmune responses
Innate Allorec
DC Immunobio/DC reg
Tissue Repair
Immunometabolism
Extracellular Vesicles and Antigen Presentation
Invertebrate Allorecognition
Cytokine Biology
Lymphoid Neogenesis

Improving Clinical Outcomes
Cell Therapy
Biomarkers/Novel Diagnostics
Organ Preservation
Transplant Pathology
Immunosuppression
Epidemiological studies/Outcomes Research
Tolerance