Transplant Research

Even with the remarkable advances in organ transplantation research, organ recipients still face severe side effects, graft failure and premature death. More organ transplant research is imperative to give the thousands of recipients with organ failure a fighting chance and to deliver hopeful futures to the millions of people threatened with organ failure today.

To date, the AST has raised over $10 million and funded more than 175 medical research grants. There is much more to be done, and we need your help!

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The Bright Future of Transplantation Research

Genomic Testing

With the assistance of cutting-edge technologies, transplant scientists and physicians have been able to identify gene expression patterns in the urine and blood of recipients, which can diagnose and predict rejection. This will allow doctors to personalize treatments for each recipient to maximize the potential for transplant success. Despite the progress in genomic testing development, there is much more work to be done to move this testing from research labs to clinical practice.

More than Transplanting Organs

Through extraordinary research discoveries, physicians can now transplant hands, legs and faces to those who have suffered severe accidental trauma. These pioneering transplantations of Vascular Composite Allografts (VCAs) require blood flow and anti-rejection medications to survive and function properly. Further research is greatly needed to enhance the successes in this area.

Donated Organ Preservation

While there have been great strides toward the organ transplantation treatments offered today, there have been even bigger steps toward seamless organ preservation. By using innovative technology and medical engineering, we will revolutionize the way we preserve harvested organs in the next few years. Supporting organ preservation research will give more access to transplants for more people and save thousands of lives and billions of dollars in health care spending.

The Next Generation of Therapy

In the past, only pharmaceutical companies had access to the chemical compounds and screening technology to develop new drugs. This has completely changed in the last 10 years, thanks to NIH investment in technology for drug discovery. However, in order to successfully implement a new therapy from bench to bedside, it needs a significant investment from a pharmaceutical company partner.