IN THE NEWS

Spinach Turned Into Heart Tissue May End The Organ Transplant Crisis
Mar 27 - Gizmodo - Spinach has long been understood to be good for your heart. But researchers have demonstrated that some day spinach could actually be your heart. Specifically, it could be used to repair damaged tissue by giving human heart tissue a plant-infused vascular system.
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Team conducts world’s 1st transplant of donor iPS cells
Mar 30 - KOBE (Jiji Press) — A team led by government-affiliated research institute RIKEN said Tuesday that it has carried out the world’s first surgery to transplant into a patient retina cells created from donor iPS cells.
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Lab-made tadpole cyclopes could help with human organ transplants
Mar 30 - The Verge - At first blush, a blind tadpole that’s had an eyeball grafted onto its tail sounds like a creature from a fairy tale — the Cyclops’ tadpole cousin. But these tadpoles exist (scientists made them!) and they could actually see through the grafted eyes after being treated with migraine medication. In fact, the feat is even more astonishing than that: the eyes didn’t connect directly to the brain, as eyes ordinarily do; they connected to the spinal cord instead. The results suggest that the tested medication, or other similar drugs, could one day help patients better integrate transplanted organs into their own bodies.
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FDA Issues Guidance on Drugs to Prevent Delayed Graft Function in Kidney Transplant Patients
Mar 23- FDA - The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday issued new draft guidance detailing its expectations for drugs intended to treat delayed graft function (DGF) in kidney transplant patients.
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Addressing Competency Requirements in Heart Failure and Transplant Training Programs
Mar. 21 - Cardiology Advisor- The American College of Cardiology (ACC) issued an Advanced Training Statement outlining the clinical competencies that trainees are expected to achieve during a training program in advanced heart failure and transplant cardiology (AHFTC), an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM)-certified subspecialty. The Advanced Training Statement was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
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Regenerative Medicine: The Promise and Peril
Mar 28 – NIH Blog – Stem cells derived from a person’s own body have the potential to replace tissue damaged by a wide array of diseases. Now, two reports published in the New England Journal of Medicine highlight the promise—and the peril—of this rapidly advancing area of regenerative medicine. Both groups took aim at the same disorder: age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a common, progressive form of vision loss. Unfortunately for several patients, the results couldn’t have been more different.
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Chinese surgeons transplant regenerated ear from arm to head
XI'AN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Plastic surgeons from a hospital in Xi'an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, have successfully transplanted a regenerated ear from a patient's arm to his head.
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NASH recurrence does not hinder liver transplantation success
Mar 24 - Washington - While the frequency of non-alcoholic steatohepatitis as an indicator for liver transplantation has increased, death from graft failure posttransplant related to NASH recurrence is less common than from cardiovascular complications and renal insufficiency, according to a presenter at Emerging Trends in Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease.
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EU rapid drug approval plan worries some national agencies
Mar 29 – Reuters - A push by the European Medicines Agency to speed up the approval of new drugs that show promise is running into resistance from some of the national agencies that will ultimately decide whether the medicines are worth buying.
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White blood cells play key role in bringing harmful virus under control after kidney transplant
Mar 30 – NewMedicalLifeSciences -Certain white blood cells play an important role in bringing a harmful virus under control after kidney transplantations. The results of a research group at the Department of Biomedicine at the University of Basel and University Hospital Basel could contribute to improving control of immunosuppression, avoiding transplant rejection and developing relevant vaccines.
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Stanford team uses innovative method to keep teen alive for heart transplant
Mar 27 – Stanford - Maga’s heart and lungs had failed and he “would have died very quickly” without an intervention, Joseph Woo, MD, told ABC 7 News in the video above. The traditional method of keeping Maga alive using a device called an ECMO (for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) would have required he stay in bed until a heart was available for transplantation. But lying in bed isn’t a recipe for remaining strong and healthy, Ha said.
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Current Challenges and Future Directions for Liver Transplantation
Mar 20 - Medscape - Liver transplantation is an effective and widely used therapy for several patients with acute and chronic liver diseases. The discrepancy between the number of patients on the waiting list and available donors remains the key issue and is responsible for the high rate of waiting list mortality.
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Heart tissue cryogenics breakthrough gives hope for transplant patients
Mar 1 - The Gaurdian - Successful freezing and rewarming of tissue sections by US team avoids damage by infusing the them with magnetic nanoparticles, paving way for entire organs
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Positive Results Published in Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation From Two China Phase 2 Trials of Roxadustat for Treatment of Anemia in Chronic Kidney Disease
Mar 30 - GlobalNewswire - FibroGen, Inc. a science-based biopharmaceutical company, today announced that clinical results from two Phase 2 studies in China of roxadustat for the treatment of anemia in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) were published in the journal Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation.
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Survey - Women in Transplantation

The WIT leadership team is currently undertaking a strategic planning process to update our mission and vision, as well as determine the kind of impact we want to have. To that end, we invite you to participate in a brief survey.

Your input will be used to help us confirm and refine our mission & vision, as well as determine the kinds of programs and activities we undertake going forward.
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Upcoming Meeting Deadlines

April 5 - Early Registration Deadline

International Pancreas & Islet Transplant Association (www.ipita2017.org) - June 20-23 - Oxford, United Kingdom

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April 7 - Abstract Submission Deadline

International Xenotransplantation Association (www.ixa2017.org) - September 20-23 - Baltimore, MD, USA

Highlights

• IXA and TTS are supporting the Congress by providing 10 travel awards for trainees, junior members, and/or residents of economically emerging countries!
• Pre-Meeting: Hyperimmunized / iABO Pre-Meeting Symposium - September 20 • 11:30-17:00
  Key opinion leaders in clinical transplantation will give an update on the Management of ABO incompatible and Hyperimmunized Patients. Get the most out of your trip to Baltimore by complementing your Congress experience with this symposium.
• Post-Meeting - 6th Swine in Biomedical Research Conference • September 23-25
  The conference is sixth in a series of conferences that have highlighted the utility of porcine models in biomedical research. Learn more about the Program!

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April 21 - Abstract Submission Deadline

International Society For Organ Donation and Procurement (www.isodp2017.org) - September 6-9 - Geneva, Switzerland

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Webinar for YOUR Fellows and Students

OPEN TO MEMBERS AND NON-MEMBERS. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR FELLOWS!

THURSDAY, April 6, 2017, 11AM (MONTREAL TIME) TRANSPLANTATION AND PRIVATE PRACTICE: A CAREER ALTERNATIVE AND ITS IMPACT ON ACADEMIC RECRUITMENT Daniel C. Brennan Professor of Renal Diseases Director of Transplant Nephrology Washington University School of Medicine St. Louis, Missouri, United States CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP