Newswise — Dr. Xian Chang Li, a national leader in the field of organ transplant tolerance and rejection, has accepted the position director of immunology in the Immunobiology Research Center at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute in Houston.
Li came to Methodist from Harvard Medical School in Boston, where he was an associate professor of medicine, and The Transplant Institute of Beth-Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard.
He is the principal investigator on two NIH-sponsored studies looking at the mechanisms of transplant tolerance and rejection, and he holds two patents related to immune response and tolerance of transplanted organs. He is published in numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals and is regularly invited to speak internationally on this topic.
"Dr. Li understands that each donated organ is more precious than gold to those who need it to survive," said Dr. Osama Gaber, director of the Methodist Transplant Center at The Methodist Hospital in Houston. "Through his novel research, Dr. Li strives to protect a donor organ from the recipient's natural immune response to reject it."
"Dr. Li's work will help advance the cause of transplant immunology and research," said Dr. Mark Ghobrial, director of the Immunobiolgy Research Center at The Methodist Hospital Research Institute. "His research addresses one of the main challenges of organ transplantation, which is rejection."
All patients who receive donated organs must take medicines that stop their immune systems from rejecting the new organs, Ghobrial added. These medications must be taken for the rest of their lives, and they make patients susceptible to other illnesses because they effectively shut down patients' immune systems.
Li's research focuses on understanding how transplant tolerance, rather than the natural rejection of an organ, can be induced and maintained for the life of the patient, protecting the organ from rejection and the patient from immune system suppression.
"Our goal is to develop therapies that selectively turn on and off different immune programs in the recipient's body," Li said. "By modulating the immune response this way, we hope to create a welcoming environment for a patient's new organ."
For more information on The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, see www.methodistresearch.com. For more information about the Methodist Transplant Center, see www.methodisttransplantcenter.com.
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