From left to right: Stefan G. Tullius
(Meeting Chair, Co-Chair BSC of TTS),
Mauro Ferrari (Keynote Speaker, BSS 2011),
Carla C. Baan (President of ESOT and meeting Co-Chair), Anita Chong (Co-Chair, BSC of TTS)<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

After four days of exciting science and networking, the symposium wrapped up with the rain ending and the sun coming through the clouds\u2014a perfect ending to the 2011 BSS. The next Basic Science Symposium co-jointly organized with ESOT will take place in Europe\u2014we are looking forward to seeing you again in\u20082013.<\/p>\n

Other Basic Science Activities to be on the look out for in 2012:<\/h3>\n

\n
1. Up to 25 Mentor\/Mentee grants will be awarded at the Berlin XXIV Congress. Be on the lookout for applications at the Congress Website (www.transplantation2012.org<\/a>) and also on the TTS website (www.tts.org<\/a>)!<\/li>\n
2. New TTS International Basic Science Research Exchange Fellowships\u2014call for applications will be in January 2012.<\/li>\n
3. New TTS International Basic Science Pre-doctoral Fellowships\u2014call for applications will be in December 2012.<\/li>\n<\/ol>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"Women in Transplantation: The Way Forward with the Mentorship Program","content":"

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   \n

   From left to right: Mitra Mahdavi-Mazdeh and her mentor Elmi Muller meet for the first time at the ESOT Congress in Glasgow<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

   When I was asked to be a mentor for the Women in Transplantation (WIT) mentorship program, the first thought I had was that I am not experienced or senior enough to be a mentor. But after thinking about it, I decided to do it in any case: I had a great avenue of senior colleagues I could ask for help if I needed it. I have had a lot of support in my life from other specialists in my field and this has made a huge difference to me, so I accepted the invitation and a few weeks later I was sent the names of my 2 mentees.<\/p>\n

   What to do next was a simple question\u2014I decided to write a very personal letter to them, introducing myself with the hope of getting to know each other. This was the start of a great friendship, which is in progress but will hopefully develop in the near future into a very special relationship.<\/p>\n

   I was privileged and excited when I heard one of my mentees, Mitra, was coming to Glasgow to attend the ESOT congress in September 2011. We arranged to meet and Mitra gave me a wonderful jewelry box from Iran, which reminds me of our special friendship every day. I am hoping that we can work together to firstly give her the chance to participate in a webinar from The Transplantation Society and then also to present a combined poster or mini-oral for the Berlin 2012 World Congress addressing some of the issues we both share as professionals working in developing countries.<\/p>\n

   The future is bright if we have friendships across international borders and we can address our issues as friends rather than on a formal level. The WIT group will be vital in this and I hope to have the opportunity to meet my other mentee, Eija, in the near future as well.<\/p>\n

   Elmi Muller<\/em><\/p>\n

   \n

   Congratulations to Elmi Muller who was recently elected as President of the Southern African Transplantation Society! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

   <\/p>\n

   Sponsored by Pfizer<\/strong><\/p>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"Women in Transplantation: Networking in Asia Report","content":"

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   \n\n

   \n

   Curie Ahn and Kathryn J. Wood at the CAST networking event in Seoul, Korea, September 2011<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

   The first networking event in Asia hosted by Women in Transplantation (WIT) was held during the 12^{th<\/sup> Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation (CAST) in Seoul, Korea in September 2011. More than 50 women from 9 Asian countries as well as Italy, Brazil and USA attended from all of the field\u2019s professional disciplines. As well as getting to know one another, the women attending the event were inspired by the presentation from Dr. Curie Ahn. Dr. Ahn, a physician scientist, spoke about her career path, including the challenges she had faced and overcome as the first female professor in the Department of Medicine at Seoul National University. She described her philosophy for success, particularly the things that motivate and guide her in her quest for clinical and research excellence.<\/p>\n}

   Dr. Ahn is also a mentor in the WIT international mentoring programme (www.tts-wit.org<\/a>). During her presentation, she encouraged her colleagues in Asia, both junior and senior, to take part in the programme, since in her experience having good mentors is an essential part of establishing a successful career as a transplant professional.<\/p>\n

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   \n

   <\/p>\n

   Sponsored by Pfizer<\/strong><\/p>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"Special Profile: 2010 TTS-Astellas Young Investigator Awards ","content":"

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   \n

   \n

   <\/div>\n

   Ten TTS-Astellas Young Investigator Awards were presented to TTS members with the highest scoring abstracts during the Vancouver Congress. TTS has been profiling the award winners throughout the year in Tribune.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

   \n\n\n

   \n <\/div>\n \n FAISAL KHAN<\/h5>\n CANADA<\/h6>\n \n Faisal Khan is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Dr. Khan\u2019s research is focussed on the areas of transplantation immunology, histocompatibility and immunogenetics. He has published more than 40 research articles and reviews in reputed scientific journals including Blood, Transplantation<\/em>, and Bone Marrow Transplantation<\/em>.<\/p>\n Dr. Khan received a Young Investigator Award for his abstract entitled Genomic Instability after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) is Frequent in Oral Mucosa, Particularly in Patients with a History of Chronic Graft-vs-Host Disease (GVHD), and Rare in Nasal Mucosa<\/em>. In this study, his research group has shown that genomic instability after HCT occurs exclusively in allogeneic HCT recipients and it occurs frequently in oral but rarely in nasal epithelia. Further, the study showed that occurrence of genomic instability is significantly associated with the history of chronic GVHD. This may explain why carcinoma after HCT frequently involves some (especially those involved with cGVHD e.g., oral) but not other (e.g., nasal) epithelia. Dr. Khan received this award while working as a Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Fellow at the University of Calgary.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

   <\/td>\n

   <\/td>\n

   \n <\/div>\n \n KATE MARKEY<\/h5>\n AUSTRALIA<\/h6>\n \n Kate Markey was granted a Young Investigator Award for her paper introducing GVHD-associated immune suppression is the result of an intrinsic defect in MHC class II antigen presentation within donor DC<\/em>. Her work aimed to define the mechanism underlying this immuno-suppression by using mouse models of experimental GVHD.<\/p>\n Her data confirm that GVHD-induced immune suppression is a consequence of an intrinsic acquired defect in MHC class II antigen presentation within cDC. This represents a paradigm shift in the understanding of the infective complications of transplantation and suggests that alloreactivity per se is the major factor responsible for pathogen associated morbidity and mortality.<\/p>\n Dr. Markey completed the MBBS\/PhD program at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia in 2010. Her PhD was conducted in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (under the supervision of Prof. Geoff Hill and Dr. Kelli MacDonald). This resulted in a number of publications, as both a first author and co-author in journals including Nature Medicine<\/em>, Blood<\/em>, and The Journal of Immunology<\/em>. At this stage, she intends to continue her clinical training and pursue her research interests, with the overall goal of developing a career as a clinician-researcher.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n

   <\/td>\n

   <\/td>\n

   \n <\/div>\n \n SUSUMU SHIBASKI<\/h5>\n JAPAN<\/h6>\n \n Susumu Shibasaki was granted a Young Investigator Award for his abstract entitled A Single Infusion of the Ex-vivo Generated Immuno-Regulatory Dendritic Cells under a Novel Agent, NK026680 Markedly Prolongs Cardiac Allograft Survival<\/em>. NK026680 treated dendritic cells (NK-DCs) acquired immuno-regulatory properties that suppress allo-immune responses, and this modulation on NK-DCs was associated with inhibition of p38-MAPK phosphorylation but upregulation of IDO expression. Further, a single in vivo infusion of NK-DCs significantly increased the proportion of regulatory T cells such as Tr1 cells and CD4+ CD25+ FoxP3+ T-cells, and markedly prolonged cardiac allograft survival. Thus, he believes that infusion therapy with DCs modulated by ex vivo NK026680 conditioning has great potential as a treatment modality for the prevention of allograft rejection by enhancing immunoregulatory function.<\/p>\n Dr. Shibasaki was born in Japan, graduated from the School of Medicine at Hokkaido University, and is a general surgical registrar at Hokkaido University Hospital. In 2008, he began his PhD studies in the transplantation research group of Prof. Todo. Currently, his research focuses on the immunoregulatory effects of ex-vivo generated dendritic cells.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n "}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"Cell Transplant Society Report - 20th Anniversary","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n On this 20th<\/sup> anniversary of the Cell Transplant Society (CTS), it is time to reflect on how we started, where we are now and where we are going. The CTS began with a membership primarily focused on pancreas and islet research, in the image of CTS creator Camillo Ricordi. Soon, however, members expanded to two lines of study\u2014both pancreas and liver. It must be remembered that the first clinical hepatocyte transplants were not conducted until after the society was established, so initially hepatocyte work was a minor component of the membership\u2019s research. Over the intervening years, the interests of membership began to diversify, with dominant roles in the society leadership and meeting activity remaining centered around liver and pancreas\/islet research, but with significantly more input from members with interests that included cardiovascular, muscle, bone and cartilage, neuroscience, and stem cell\u2014ranging from bone marrow to pluripotent stem cells. This year, during our 20th<\/sup> anniversary, the diversity of society interests were prominently displayed by poster and oral presentations at the joint CTS-IXA meeting in Miami on October 23-26, 2011. There is strength in this diversity, and the opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas and technology from vastly different directions has never been greater. Mark your calendars \u2014 CTS 2013 will be held in Milan, Italy.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"IXA Update","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n The second WHO-IXA Global Consultation on Regulatory Requirements for Xenotransplantation Clinical Trials took place in Geneva in October 2011 in the presence of representatives from health authorities from more than 15 countries. Safety and infectious disease transmission risk mitigation were central to the discussions that took place at this second consultation and the key recommendations of this meeting are summarized on the IXA website: www.tts.org\/ixa<\/a>.<\/p>\n The 2011 CTS\/IXA Joint Congress held in Miami last month brought together world leaders in xenotransplantation and in cellular therapies, tissue engineering, biomaterials, nanotechnologies, stem cells and regenerative medicine to catalyze an unprecedented level of scientific and translational exchange in these complementary fields of science and technology. The Joint Congress was a great success and represented also an opportunity to bring together first class scientists and business leaders to catalyze unprecedented collaborative efforts, from basic science to applied research and delivery of novel therapeutic solutions to humankind. Please take note that the 2013 IXA meeting will be held in Osaka, Japan.<\/p>\n Finally, the results of the recent IXA Council election were announced at the IXA Business Meeting during the CTS\/IXA 2011 Joint International Congress in Miami. The structure of the new Council can now be found on the IXA website at: www.tts.org\/ixa<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"5th International TID Meeting Report","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n On September 3, 2011, the Transplant Infectious Disease (TID) section had a very exciting 5th International Transplant Infectious Disease meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The meeting was held just before the European Society of Organ Transplantation meeting. Seventeen speakers discussed cutting-edge topics, ranging from donor-derived infections, immunologic assays, and optimal fungal diagnostics, to antibiotic resistance in transplant patients. Multiple speakers discussed prevention of infection, including CMV. Additional topics included hepatitis E, HIV and organ transplant, CMV resistance, and novel vaccination strategies in transplant patients. Over one hundred attendees from all over the world helped provide interesting discussion. The meeting finished with presentations of complicated cases in transplant infectious disease, which helped summarize and highlight many of the interesting talks from earlier in the day. A lively networking dinner was held afterwards at The Corinthian Club. TID hopes to hold another meeting in the near future, and welcomes suggestions on future topics and speakers from all members of The Transplantation Society.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"ISODP 2011 Congress Update","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n On November 26-29, 2011, the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) held its 11th<\/sup> Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There were a number of highly qualified presentations with state-of-the-art lectures and of course, much opportunity for discussion among conference participants. The highlights of the conference were aspects of safety in organ donation concerning infectious diseases and malignancies. There were also a number of presentations about the issue of donor detection in DCDs and DB, and new aspects of living donation were also discussed. Additionally, an overview of the current situation of organ donation, especially in South America and other countries, was the benchmark discussion among participants and experts.<\/p>\n The ISODP has gone through a process of revising and finalizing its bylaws, including a new voting procedure that will be explained to its members. The current board is very much looking forward to the nomination of people working in the field who are willing to engage themselves in the ISODP.<\/p>\n The ISODP is pleased to announce the 2011 Transplant Coordinator Scholarship Program, a joint project of The Transplantation Society and the ISODP, made possible once again by the generous support of Astellas Pharmaceuticals. The program is open to all who are working in the field of organ donation outside of North America, and provides funds for a quality education in an experienced country. Details of the application can be found on our website: www.isodp.org<\/a>. The scholarship program was a great success two years ago, and has led to numerous activities in the recipients\u2019 home countries. Our board is looking forward to receiving this next round of applications. I hope to see you all in Buenos Aires.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"IHCTAS Update","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n The IHCTAS has been privileged to benefit from the work of professionals dedicated to the advancement of vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) (a.k.a. composite tissue allotransplantation or CTA) through their service as Board or Council Members. It is that time again to pass the torch. We are grateful to the services of Past-President Maria Siemionow, Secretary Frederic Schuind, and Council Member Warren Breidenbach for what they accomplished. We welcome President Pedro Cavadas, Vice-President Palmina Petruzzo, Secretary Linda Cendales, Treasurer Jean-Michel Dubernard, Council Members Jerzy Jablecki, Stefan Schneeberger, Christina Kauffman, and Bohdan Pomahac, and International Registry on Hand and Composite Tissue Transplantation (IRHCTT) Delegate Marco Lanzetta.<\/p>\n The field continues in its growth period. Currently, 96 patients worldwide who have received a vascularized composite allograft have been reported to the IRHCTT (www.handregistry.com<\/a>). Among them, 30 received a unilateral hand, 21 received bilateral hands, 2 received single digits, 6 received knees, 3 received femoral diaphysis, 1 received a uterus, 1 received a lower limb, 16 received larynx, 9 received simultaneous intestine and abdominal walls, and 7 received faces.<\/p>\n In other news, over the next year we will be working on enlarging the Society\u2019s membership and re-designing the IHCTAS website. We look forward to expanding the visibility of the Society internationally, to better serve the scientific growth of VCA.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"IPITA Congress 2011 Report","content":" \n \n\n\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n \n The 13th<\/sup> Congress of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA) was held in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, on June 1-4, 2011. The Congress was an outstanding success. It was attended by 421 registered participants from 35 countries, and provided an excellent opportunity for the exchange of information on novel achievements and emerging challenges on the road to a cure for type 1 diabetes using beta cell replacement.<\/p>\n The Scientific Programme included 60 lectures by top experts invited from all over the world, 151 oral and mini-oral presentations and 166 posters. The presentations provided a \u201cstate of the art\u201d review of key aspects of the fields of whole pancreas transplantation and islet transplantation, as well as transplantation of insulin-producing tissue from alternative sources. In addition, there were 6 parallel early morning workshops covering some of the practical aspects of pancreas and islet transplantation: assessment of the islet preparation, assessment of the pancreas donor, long-term islet survival, pancreas transplantation techniques, pancreas preservation and islet immunoisolation. Two half-day pre-meeting symposia covered the topics of \u201cImmunosuppression in Pancreas Transplantation\u201d and \u201cOngoing Challenges of Human Islet Isolation.\u201d<\/p>\n As an acknowledgement of their outstanding contributions to the fields of pancreas and islet cell transplantation, David Sutherland from Minneapolis received the Richard Lillehei Award, and Daniel Pipeleers from Brussels received the Paul Lacy Award. An excellent Gala Dinner held at the splendid Zofi Palace complemented the scientific part of the meeting. The IPITA Council would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Local Organising Committee chaired by Frantisek Saudek for organising such a memorable meeting, and to Thierry Berney for all his hard work as Chair of the Programme Committee.<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>"}},{"name":"","type":"accordion_item","props":{"title":"In Memoriam: Fritz Bach \u2013 Transplant Pioneer","content":" \n <\/p>\n Fritz Heinz Bach, a pioneer transplant immunologist and the Lewis Thomas Distinguished Professor of Immunology (Surgery) at Harvard Medical School died suddenly on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at his home at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts after a long illness. He was 77 years old.<\/p>\n He was generally regarded as one of the early giants of transplant immunology, a visionary whose contributions changed transplant immunology as we know it. His early observations on cell transformations which occur in in vitro cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from unrelated individuals, his studies on the relation of these changes to the alloimmune response and histocompatibility antigens, and his early application of the mixed lymphocyte lymphocyte culture (MLC) assay to the selection of compatible tissue and organ donors unleashed a veritable perfect storm of related progress in experimental and clinical transplantation that persists to this day.<\/p>\n Bach was born in Vienna, Austria in 1935. After the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, he and his older brother were sent to safety in England in 1939 via the legendary Kinder Transport organized by the British to rescue over 10,000 predominantly Jewish children that were cared for by British families. After being joined by their parents in England, the Bach family immigrated to Burlington, Vermont in 1949 where Bach attended Burlington Public High School before enrolling in Harvard College as a scholarship student and obtaining a Bachelor's degree in 1955. He went on to Harvard Medical School where he became interested in immunology and genetics and graduated in 1960.<\/p>\n Bach undertook internal residency training at New York University where he came under the influence of Lewis Thomas, whom he always credited as being the inspiration for his scientific career. In 1964, Bach and Hirschorn described experiments involving the culture of peripheral blood lymphocytes from two unrelated individuals in vitro for 7-8 days in which some of the cells underwent large cell transformation and division. They estimated the percent of blast cell transformation and mitosis by microscopic examination of fixed smears. They noted that PBL cultures of individuals in whom the probability of sharing HLA antigens had been determined by skin grafting had the lowest number of large cells and mitoses. Bach and Hirschorn suggested that it might be possible to develop mixed lymphocyte cell cultures (MLC) as a typing test for potential recipients and donors of kidney allografts that could identify the most compatible pairs. Later work by Bach and others showed that lymphocytes generated in MLC cultures were cytotoxic to stimulator cells, thereby connecting in vitro alloreactivity with in vivo graft rejection, i.e. the MLC reflected activation of the immune response and the derivative CML reaction (cell mediated lymphotoxicity) represented its effector arm.<\/p>\n Bach worked at the University of Wisconsin from 1965 through 1979. In 1967, he used the MLC assay to select non-reactive, compatible donors for the first successful matched bone marrow transplants performed for immunodeficiency diseases first by Robert Good in Minnesota and then by Bach in Wisconsin, with both cases subsequently reported together as twin papers in The Lancet<\/em>. This was a milestone in clinical bone marrow transplantation (BMT) which presaged the widespread successful application of BMT in the treatment of diseases. Bach and his group performed extensive studies utilizing the MLC and the derivative CML reaction to study multiple aspects of allograft effector mechanisms and histocompatibility antigens which eventually led to his being among the first to conceptualize that there were two kinds of HLA antigens\u2014those defined by serological methods and those defined by MLC techniques (later called Class I and Class II respectively). Bach subsequently worked at the University of Minnesota from 1979 through 1992 where he continued and expanded his basic studies on T-cell immunogenetics and cytotoxicity, HLA function and structure and the H-2 locus. While at Minnesota, he developed an interest in xenotransplantation which fostered productive experimental collaborations with J.L. Platt, and A.P. Dulmasso and others that examined numerous aspects of xenotransplant rejection.<\/p>\n In 1992, Bach was recruited by the Department of Surgery of the New England Deaconess Hospital (now part of the merged Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) and Harvard Medical School to be the Director of the Sandoz Center for Immunobiology Research. The purpose of the new Sandoz Center was to focus collaborative, multidisciplinary research on xenotransplantation and related research areas. Over the next eleven years, he fostered multiple creative and productive collaborations which examined in depth the immunologic, molecular, coagulation\/hematologic and genetic mechanisms involved in the genesis and evolution of events leading to xenograft rejection and destruction. A very important outgrowth of these collaborations was that Bach recognized the importance of genes whose purpose it was to provide protection against stress and disease and the need to study how to take advantage of these cytoprotective and homeostatic systems in order to apply them to the prevention and treatment of clinical diseases and inflammatory states. It is noteworthy that in spite of a strong interest in and commitment to xenograft research for the eventual use of xenografts in human clinical transplantation, Bach urged caution against their premature use because of the possibility of introducing serious infections and other diseases into human beings.<\/p>\n Bach was author\/co-author on approximately 800 papers. He was a gifted, dedicated, and charismatic teacher. He trained, mentored, sponsored, and encouraged hosts of postgraduate students, fellows, and junior faculty who later rose to academic positions of great prominence and responsibility. He was editor of Clinical Immunology<\/em> (with R.A. Good), and editor-in-chief of Xeno<\/em>. He was also a respected and important member of the Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Immunologists, Tthe Transplantation Society, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and a charter member of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. His numerous awards included the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Red Cross (1983), the Medal of the College de France (1984), the Emilio Trabucchi Foundation Award (1989), and the Medawar Prize of Tthe Transplantation Society (1995).<\/p>\n Fritz Bach was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce. He is survived by his ex-wives, six children, and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n Although Bach was passionately and totally engaged in his scientific endeavors, \u2013he also enjoyed wide-ranging interests in classical music, sailing, tennis, travel, food, spy novels and Sunday news shows. He was a warm, friendly, extroverted bon vivant who enjoyed the good things in life and was fun to be with. He genuinely enjoyed being with and socializing with his many friends. They will miss him dearly.<\/p>\n Anthony P. Monaco, M.D.<\/em><\/p>"}}]}]}]}]}]} -->