Join your colleagues in sharing innovative approaches to clinical practice, gaining insight into transplant finance, and expanding your leadership skills at the AST Medical Directors Forum.

We’re pleased to announce that the application window for Fellows 2025 travel grants has been reopened for a short period in response to community feedback.

This extension is intended to ensure equitable access, particularly for transplant fellows whose programs began on or after July 1 and may have been unable to apply during the original cycle.

If you or someone in your program is eligible but missed the initial deadline, now is the time to apply.

New Application Deadline: Wednesday, July 23
Meeting Location: Chicago, IL
Symposium Dates: September 19–21, 2025

The AST President and Executive Committee recently met with HRSA Administrator Tom Engels and the HHS organ transplant team in Washington, DC.

 

The conversation covered OPTN modernization, patient-focused initiatives, and system-wide improvements — all with the goal of strengthening the transplant community.

 

We’re grateful to Administrator Engels and his team for their time, insight, and ongoing collaboration.

On behalf of the AST, the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), and The Transplantation Society (TTS), we are excited to announce that registration is officially open for the International Transplantation Science Meeting 2025. 

ITS 2025 marks the fourth tri-society event in this global collaboration, bringing together top experts, early-career researchers, and transplant professionals worldwide. This meeting offers an exciting forum to explore cutting-edge basic and translational science in and beyond the field of transplantation.

In celebration of the World Transplant Congress taking place August 2–6 in San Francisco, we are launching a members only interactive website scavenger hunt on Partner Connect!

 

Here’s how it works:

The Living Donor Protection Act (LDPA) has been reintroduced in Congress, and we need your support. This bipartisan legislation would prohibit insurance discrimination against living organ donors, ensure they can use FMLA leave during recovery, and require updated educational resources to promote donation.

Take action now — urge your lawmakers to support the LDPA.

Funding cuts to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) put critical transplant research at risk. NIH-funded studies have driven advancements in transplantation, improving patient outcomes and paving the way for innovations like new immunosuppressants, immune tolerance strategies, and even organ regeneration. Without this support, progress in the field could slow, affecting countless patients and families.

We need your help to ensure that transplant research remains a priority. Use our advocacy page to contact your members of Congress and urge them to protect NIH funding. Together, we can make a difference. Take action today!

The AST developed a survey aimed at soliciting your perspectives on legislative and regulatory issues that significantly influence both patient care and professional practice. Our goal is to establish a platform for our membership to share their invaluable ideas and perspectives and actively engage with the Public Policy Committee and AST leadership. We look forward to your input as we navigate the dynamics of our ever-evolving landscape of transplant care and practice.

Source: www.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
The efficacy and safety of nucleos(t)ide analogs is currently a critical issue in the treatment of hepatitis B virus infection. We aimed to investigate the long-term efficacy and safety profile of tenofovir alafenamide (TAF) treatment in the liver transplant recipients (LTRs).

Source: JAMA Network
Allocation out of sequence (AOOS) allows organ procurement organizations (OPOs) to offer organs outside of standard allocation and bypass those atop the match run. AOOS may allow OPOs to successfully place medically complex organs; however, increasing use of AOOS also raises concern for inefficiencies within the allocation process and may exacerbate systemic inequities.

Source: www.journals.lww.com
Kidney marginality criteria consider the impact of donor characteristics on graft failure risk. To evaluate graft quality according to both the donor and recipient, we identified recipient characteristics that may modify the predictive capacity of a donor marginality score.