New Presidential Address

Dear IXA members,

Our field of research has taken advantage of recent tools for genetic engineering that have opened us new perspectives and we all look forward to seeing faster advances and achievements.

This year, we will meet for the TTS congress in Madrid, from June 30th to July 5th, where workshops and sessions on xenotransplantation will allow us to be updated on the latest developments. I invite all members to join this important venue and to share their most recent data.

I also would like to suggest you to submit your work to our journal “Xenotransplantation” which has reached the impact factor of 3.96. In contrast to other journals, we accept clinical case-reports and are confident that the impact of our field will continue to grow!

I look forward to seeing you in Madrid,

Leo Buhler
IXA President

Xeno-Lab Introduce

The TRR127 is a unique Consortium encompassing basic research on xenogeneic immune mechanisms, generation and evaluation of novel genetically (multi-) modified donor pigs, and preclinical porcine islet, heart valve, and heart transplantation studies. The collaboration of institutions from the Ludwig-Maximilian University Munich, the Technical University Munich, the Hannover Medical School, and the Technical University Dresden is funded by the German Research Council (DFG). Additional participating institutions are the Friedrich Loeffler Institute (Mariensee), the German Primate Centre (Göttingen), the Robert Koch Institute (Berlin), and the Paul Ehrlich Institute (Langen).

The Consortium is structured as three closely interacting Research Areas, supported by Central Projects that focus on ethical, legal and societal issues, microbiological safety, provision of safe donor pigs with effective genetic modifications, and non-human primate (NHP) studies (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1. Structure of the DFG-funded Transregional Collaborative Research Center 127 – TRR127

IXA Vanguard Committee update

The Vanguard Committee provides a forum for student and junior faculty of the IXA to share ideas with their peers and foster their scientific development. Members can keep current with the latest news of interest to them by following the Vanguard Committee on Twitter @ixa-vanguard or Facebook page by searching for “International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA) Vanguard Committee”. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact at ixavanguard@tts.org.

Best article in Xenotransplantation Journal

Below is a list of the top 10 downloaded articles from Nov/Dec 2017 to Jan/Feb 2018 in Xenotransplantation.

1. Scobie L, Denner J, Schuurman HJ, “Inactivation of porcine endogenous retrovirus in pigs using CRISPR-Cas9, editorial commentary”, vol. 25, no. 6, Nov 2017
2. French BM, Sendil S, Pierson RN 3rd, Azimzadeh AM, “The role of sialic acids in the immune recognition of xenografts.”, vol. 24, no. 6, Nov 2017.
3. Güell M, Niu D, Kan Y, George H, Wang T, Lee IH, Wang G, Church G, Yang L, “PERV inactivation is necessary to guarantee absence of pig-to-patient PERVs transmission in xenotransplantation”, vol. 24, no. 6, Nov 2017.
4. Li M, Eckl J, Abicht JM, Mayr T, Reichart B, Schendel DJ, Pohla H, “Induction of porcine-specific regulatory T cells with high specificity and expression of IL-10 and TGF-β1 using baboon-derived tolerogenic dendritic cells.”, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan 2018
5. Shin JS, Kim JM, Min BH, Yoon IH, Kim HJ, Kim JS, Kim YH, Kang SJ, Kim J, Kang HJ, Lim DG, Hwang ES, Ha J, Kim SJ, Park WB, Park CG, “Pre-clinical results in pig-to-non-human primate islet xenotransplantation using anti-CD40 antibody (2C10R4)-based immunosuppression.”, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan 2018.
6. Lee EM, Jung JI, Alam Z, Yi HG, Kim H, Choi JW, Hurh S, Kim YJ, Jeong JC, Yang J, Oh KH, Kim HC, Lee BC, Choi I, Cho DW, Ahn C, “Effect of an oxygen-generating scaffold on the viability and insulin secretion function of porcine neonatal pancreatic cell clusters”, Epub ahead of print, Jan 2018.
7. Min BH, Shin JS, Kim JM, Kang SJ, Kim HJ, Yoon IH, Park SK, Choi JW, Lee MS, Park CG, “Delayed revascularization of islets after transplantation by IL-6 blockade in pig to non-human primate islet xenotransplantation model”, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan 2018
8. Chan JL, Singh AK, Corcoran PC, Thomas ML, Lewis BG, Ayares DL, Vaught T, Horvath KA, Mohiuddin MM. “Encouraging experience using multi-transgenic xenografts in a pig-to-baboon cardiac xenotransplantation model”, vol. 24, no. 6, Nov 2017.
9. Puga Yung G, Bongoni AK, Pradier A, Madelon N, Papaserafeim M, Sfriso R, Ayares DL, Wolf E, Klymiuk N, Bähr A, Constantinescu MA, Voegelin E, Kiermeir D, Jenni H, Rieben R, Seebach JD, “Release of pig leukocytes and reduced human NK cell recruitment during ex vivo perfusion of HLA-E/human CD46 double-transgenic pig limbs with human blood.”, vol. 25, no. 1, Jan 2018.
10. Ma X, Yang C, Zhang J, Wang J, Li W, Xu C, Rong P, Ye B, Wu M, Jiang J, Yi S, Wang W, “Culturing with modified EGM2 medium enhances porcine neonatal islet-like cell clusters resistance to apoptosis in islet xenotransplantation.” vol. 25, no. 1, Jan 2018

XenoTx Events in TTS2018 Madrid

The 27th International Congress of The Transplantation Society will be held in Madrid, Spain from June 30-July 5, 2018 and the IXA will be well represented by several informative lectures on topics of great interest to our members. We hope to see many members in attendance at these and other events to show support for our colleagues and to take advantage of prime networking opportunities available.