Chung-Gyu Park, MD, PhD is a Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Seoul National University College of Medicine and the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Seoul National University Graduate School. He is also the Director of the Xenotransplantation Research Center (XRC) in Seoul, South Korea. His interests have focused on basic microbiology and transplant immunology. Following post-doctoral training with Dr. Jeffrey Bluestone, his research has focused on immune-tolerance, islet transplantation and xenotransplantation. At XRC, he helped to establish pig-to-nonhuman primate (NHP) xenotransplantation research, including a porcine islet isolation core, the NHP facility, and the immune-monitoring core. Since 2013, as director of the XRC, he has made significant scientific contributions in pre-clinical pig-to-NHP studies on islet and cornea xenotransplantation. Among his many publications, Dr. Park has published over 160 papers in peer-reviewed journals; among his studies are innovative studies of pre-clinical immune-tolearnce induction with a novel anti-ICAM1 mAb in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. Based on this experience, he has been able to establish the regulatory framework for xenotransplantation in Korea and is looking to initiate the first clinical trials of porcine islet and cornea xenotransplantation in Korea. Dr. Park has also helped to establish international guidelines for xeno beta-cell replacement therapies. He served as an IXA councilor (2011-2015), the associate dean at SNU College of Medicine (2015-2016), the president of the Korean Association for Immunologists (2016-2017), and the vice president of Korean Association of Laboratory Animal Science.

We present a collection of articles featuring Dr. Muhammad Mohiuddin, Professor of Surgery, Director, Program in Cardiac Xenotransplantation, University of Maryland School of Medicine, who, together with Dr. Bartley Griffin, led the team that recently performed the first xenotransplant of a porcine heart into a human patient at the University of Maryland, in Baltimore, USA. Dr. Mohiuddin is IXA President Elect, and a current member of the IXA Executive Committee.

The link that was provided by the University of Maryland, collects several pieces of media coverage of the first human heart xenotransplantation. Dr. Mohiuddin with his colleagues, share insights on the course of events surrounding this historical first in xenotransplantation, the circumstances and scientific ground that led to be granted permission from the competent authorities as well as the ethical motivation to offer this non-standard treatment to a very sick patient that had no chance to be treated with more conventional therapies. While raising debates, as all novel procedures do, discussions in the scientific community and in public have continued. The path to greater success can come from learning at each little step along the way. Dr. Mohiuddin has provided a veritable treasure trove to keep the discussions on xenotransplantation moving forward.

A second collection of interviews, include among others, a joint interview of Dr. Mohiuddin and Dr. Meghan Sykes, Director, Columbia Center for Translational Immunology, Columbia University, USA, Past IXA President and Vice-President of The Transplantation Society, offering more insights on the potential of xenotransplantation as a solution to the human organ shortage.