A readily available, inexpensive small molecule drug can improve the fitness of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells (HSPCs) that are modified outside of the body, potentially improving the success of procedures like ex vivo gene therapy, according to a new study by researchers at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP).
When an immunocompromised person’s system begins to recover and produce more white blood cells, it’s usually a good thing – unless they develop a potentially deadly inflammatory condition.
FINDINGS People from socioeconomically distressed communities who underwent heart transplantation between 2004 and 2018 faced a 10% greater relative risk of experiencing graft failure and dying within five years compared to people from non-distressed communities. In addition, following implementation of the 2018 UNOS Heart Allocation policy, transplant recipients between 2018 and 2022 faced an approximately 20% increase in relative risk of dying or experiencing graft failure within three years compared with the pre-policy period.
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center’s Research Highlights showcases the latest breakthroughs in cancer care, research and prevention. These advances are made possible through seamless collaboration between MD Anderson’s world-leading clinicians and scientists, bringing discoveries from the lab to the clinic and back.
Recent developments include a novel computational tool to detect single base pair DNA changes in single-cell sequencing data, a potential target to treat hypertension caused by drugs commonly used in organ transplants, further insights into the steps involved in genetic recombination, a novel treatment target for a subset of adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC), a combination therapy that improves outcomes in certain patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), and a target for treating prolonged cytopenia in patients with relapsed/refractory large B cell lymphoma treated with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell therapy.
A multi-site, five-year study led by a MedStar Heart & Vascular Institute cardiologist and fellow researchers from across the country have demonstrated the benefits of routine genetic testing for patients with advanced disease from dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), a disease of the heart muscle and their at-risk family members.
In a breakthrough in liver transplantation that may lead to the ability to connect more living donors and patients, a new matching system designed by a team led by Boston College economists enabled the world’s first four-way liver exchange and a cascade of additional matches.
Cultivated autologous limbal epithelial cells (CALEC) transplant, in which stem cells from the healthy eye and transplanted into the injured eye, for significant cornea injuries was found safe and led to gains in preliminary phase I clinical trial.
A two-year study found that spikes of post-vaccination SARS-CoV-2 viral infections (commonly known as COVID-19 breakthrough cases) remain common, yet hospitalization rates have dramatically dropped following the first wave of the virus’ omicron subvariant.
Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and RWJBarnabas Health have appointed Niketa C. Shah, MD, as chief of Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation and Cellular Therapies at New Jersey’s leading cancer program.
Bridge to Life Ltd. (BTL), a leading global supplier of organ preservation and perfusion technologies, announced today its divestiture of certain assets to TransMedics, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of TransMedics Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: TMDX), including its EVOSS heart and lung and LifeCradle heart perfusion assets.
New research shows how using molecular tools and alternative gene splicing can make a protein called CEACAM1 more protective against liver injury during transplantation, thus reducing organ injury and ultimately improving post-transplant outcomes.
Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. Reporting on wildfire smoke? Fred Hutch clinicians and researchers are available to their expertise. Dr. Trang VoPham is an epidemiologist focusing on environmental exposures and risk, follow her on social media.
The United States Senate unanimously passed the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN) Act (S. 1668), following House passage earlier this week, marking a new era for the United States transplant system.
According to the National Kidney Foundation, more than 100,000 Americans are waiting for a kidney transplant, and the demand for donated kidneys far exceeds the supply. In fact, only 25,498 kidney transplants were performed in 2022, and kidney disease impacts 37 million people in the U.S. But a new preclinical study, led by scientists at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, shows that a new technology called mitochondrial transplantation holds promise as a potential therapy that could change the kidney transplant landscape.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) celebrates the unanimous passage of the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement Transplantation Network (OPTN) Act (H.R. 2544) by the United States House of Representatives. This bipartisan legislation will increase transparency, accountability, and competition in the U.S. transplant system.
Valance Sams Sr.’s world was turned upside down 10 years ago when he was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a rare inflammatory disease that caused a buildup of scar tissue on his heart and left him unable to work, exercise or even walk.
Based on findings from a study published today in the journal, The Lancet Regional Health – Americas, researchers at Johns Hopkins Medicine and three collaborating medical institutions suggest that people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) who donate a kidney to other people living with HIV (PLWH) have a low risk of developing end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) or other kidney problems in the years following the donation.
A new study, which involved experiments on mice and human patients, uncovered an important communication pathway between two molecules called CEACAM1 (CC1) and TIM-3, finding that the pathway plays a crucial role in controlling the body's immune response during liver transplantation.
In the next step toward producing the answer to kidney transplantation shortages, Dr. Anthony Atala, Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM), and the kidney research team, have been awarded the prestigious KidneyX Track 2 $1 Million Prize for work based on a 3D kidney construct platform.
Approximately 90,000 Americans, including 1,100 children are currently waiting for a kidney transplant. Tragically, 12 Americans will die today waiting for a kidney. Advocates from the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) are on Capitol Hill today urging Congress to implement reforms that will help maximize access to transplant care for the 37 million Americans living with kidney diseases; the 8th leading cause of death in the United States.
An initiative at Northeast Georgia Medical Center’s hospital campus in Gainesville created a hospital culture that values organ donation as a standard of care for patients and families, leading to a sustained increase in referrals, donors and transplanted organs.
A surgical team from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis recently performed the first robotic liver transplant in the U.S. in May at Barnes-Jewish Hospital.
The randomized controlled study was conducted by 15 liver transplant centers in the United States, including Ochsner Health Liver Transplant Institute, and compared the use of normothermic machine preservation (NMP)—which maintains the organ at normal body temperature-- with static cold storage (SCS) in 383 donor organs.
Fiscal year 2023, which ended June 30, proved to be the busiest year yet for Cedars-Sinai’s Comprehensive Transplant Center and Smidt Heart Institute, with more than 600 organs transplanted.
Doctors in Seattle are reporting a history-making case in which a patient received two donor organs, a liver and a heart, to prevent the extreme likelihood that her body would reject a donor heart transplanted alone. In this innovative case, the organ recipient’s own healthy liver was transplanted, domino-like, into a second patient who had advanced liver disease.
A new study published today in The Lancet has revealed the most extensive analysis to date on what led to the eventual heart failure in the world's first successful transplant of a genetically-modified pig heart into a human patient.
Striving to improve organ transplant survival rates, internationally renowned researchers in immunology and bioengineering at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have received $15.1 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to lead a novel, five-year multi-center research program that will explore trained immunity—the innate immune system’s ability to remember infections and other insults—as a target for preventing organ transplant rejection.
An experimental antibody treatment largely prevented a bone marrow transplant complication called graft versus host disease (GVHD) in the intestines, without causing broad immune suppression, in a preclinical study led by researchers from Penn Medicine and Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center and published today in Science Translational Medicine.
Race-neutral lung function interpretation could increase access to lung transplants for Black patients with respiratory disease, according to new research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society online ahead of print.
Clinicians have a new standard for graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) prevention after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, according to results from a phase III study published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The new standard is more effective at preventing GVHD and came with less side effects, compared with the current gold standard.
Survival rates of babies after bone-marrow transplants jumped significantly after screening for SCID – severe combined immunodeficiency disease – started in North America in 2008, a major study finds.
Loyola Medicine's advanced robotic surgery program makes it one of the few hospitals in the country to offer kidney transplantation to patients with obesity.
Dozens of children die each year in the U.S. while waiting for a new liver. A new analysis suggests that greater use of partial liver transplants — either from a living donor or by splitting a deceased donor’s liver for two recipients — could save many of these young lives.
Rohit Loomba, MD, has been named chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology at University of California San Diego School of Medicine. His new role is effective June 1, 2023.
As more families consider bariatric surgery a viable option to treat their child’s obesity, it is important to stay up-to-date on the latest research on weight loss. You can find the latest research on bariatric surgery and other weight loss options in the Weight Loss channel on Newswise, where journalists can find story ideas on this trending topic.
Some centers routinely skip the top kidney transplant candidates on the wait list and give the kidney to lower-ranked patients, finds a new study at Columbia University.
A study published in New England Journal of Medicine confirms that circulatory death donor hearts that are reanimated and perfused with blood outside of the body are as safe and effective to transplant as brain death donor hearts preserved using traditional cold storage. These findings suggest that using hearts donated after circulatory death (DCD) may have the potential to widen the donor pool helping more patients in need of life-saving heart transplants.
A study led by Duke Health physicians, appearing online June 8 in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that DCD hearts were equivalent to hearts procured through the current standard of care.
Cedars-Sinai clinicians and scientists, including Medawar Prize winner Stanley Jordan, MD, and prominent nephrology and immunology investigator Peter Heeger, MD, will share their latest advances in research at the American Transplant Congress (ATC), June 3-7, 2023, in San Diego.
A tiny population of T-cells could serve as a much-needed biomarker—and a potential therapeutic target—for pediatric acute liver failure, according to new research from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles.
Below are summaries of recent Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center research findings and other news. If you’re covering the American Society for Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting, June 2-6 in Chicago, Illinois, see our list of Fred Hutch research highlights at ASCO and contact [email protected] to set up interviews with experts.
Transplant surgeons at the University of Michigan Health completed the health system’s first heart transplant using a donation after circulatory death, or DCD, heart. DCD transplants increased 68% in 2022.
Announcement of Zoe Stewart Lewis, MD, PhD, MPH, as the new Director of Cleveland's University Hospitals Transplant Institute and Chief of the Division of Transplant and Hepatobiliary Surgery in the Department of Surgery.
The American Society of Nephrology (ASN) applauds the introduction of the Securing the U.S. Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network Act (S. 1668), bipartisan legislation to ensure accountability and transparency in the U.S. transplant system by modernizing its underlying technology and policy infrastructure.
Com muita frequência, as pessoas que estão esperando por transplantes de órgãos que salvam vidas não conseguem realizar o procedimento. Um dos maiores desafios é a falta de órgãos doados em condições viáveis.
Es demasiado frecuente que las personas que esperan un trasplante de órganos para salvar sus vidas no puedan conseguirlo. Una de las mayores dificultades es la falta de órganos donados viables.
في كثير من الأحيان، لا يمكن لمن ينتظرون عمليات زراعة الأعضاء المنقذة للحياة الحصول عليها. من أكبر التحديات التي تواجههم: الافتقار إلى الأعضاء الصالحة المُتبرع بها.
The Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) will make history this month when the first bioprinted solid tissue constructs soar to the International Space Station (ISS) on board the next all private astronaut mission by commercial space leader Axiom Space.
Title 42, the United States pandemic rule that had been used to immediately deport hundreds of thousands of migrants who crossed the border illegally over the last three years, has expired. Those migrants will have the opportunity to apply for asylum. President Biden's new rules to replace Title 42 are facing legal challenges. Border crossings have already risen sharply, as many migrants attempt to cross before the measure expires on Thursday night. Some have said they worry about tighter controls and uncertainty ahead. Immigration is once again a major focus of the media as we examine the humanitarian, political, and public health issues migrants must go through.