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.

Know an early-career professional or student interested in transplantation? Encourage them to check out the AST Fellows Symposium! This unique program offers expert-led sessions and valuable networking with leaders in the field. It’s a great opportunity for fellows, residents, pharmacists, nurses, and students to explore career paths in transplant and build lasting connections.

We're excited to offer a special giveaway in support of the Fellows Symposium on Transplantation! Each year, the AST empowers the next generation of transplant professionals through travel grants, making this essential educational experience accessible to emerging talent.

 

How to Enter
 

Your contribution directly funds travel opportunities for the transplant professionals who will lead our field tomorrow.

This "Understanding the Impact of the Pre-Transplant Mortality Ratio Metric Implementation" survey focuses on how transplant professionals perceive and respond to the recently implemented pre-transplant mortality ratio metric by UNOS. The goal is to assess how the metric has influenced transplant center practices, particularly in patient listing and organ utilization.

The OPTN summer public comment period began on August 27 and will run through October 1. You can find the proposals the OPTN released for comment this cycle on the OPTN website.

This 10-minute survey is part of an ongoing AST Women’s Health Community of Practice (WHCOP) effort to better understand and improve support for transplant professionals when it comes to family leave and childrearing. The survey is expected to take less than 10 minutes to complete and will help with understanding the current practices and beliefs surrounding pregnancy and parental leave for transplant professionals. Responses will be used in research to identify gaps, inform best practices, and guide future policy and institutional recommendations to better support the transplant workforce.

The AST is proud to recognize this year’s Fellows of the American Society of Transplantation (FAST). This honorary designation is awarded to members who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the field of transplantation and outstanding service to the AST.

 

We celebrate the 2025 recipients for their dedication, leadership, and contributions that continue to advance our mission and strengthen the transplant community.

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: Wiley Online Library
Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) and GLP-1/glucose dependent insulinotropic polypeptide receptor agonist (GLP-1/GIP RA) use is becoming increasingly common, but there are little data on their use after lung transplantation. Furthermore, obesity is a known cause of lung function decline after lung transplant, but whether weight loss experienced while on these medications leads to improved lung allograft function has not been investigated.

Source: Wiley Online Library
Extracorporeal photopheresis (ECP) has gained recognition as a valuable adjunctive antirejection therapy, particularly in heart-transplantation (HT) patients at elevated risk for rejection or those experiencing recurrent antibody-mediated rejection (AMR) despite appropriate treatment. We evaluated the safety and clinical effects of ECP in HT recipients with high immunologic risk.

Source: The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation
Paediatric heart transplantation remains hampered by the limited availability of donor organs. The introduction of ABO-incompatible (ABOi) heart transplantation for infants in the early 2000s expanded the donor pool for individual candidates. Nonetheless, concerns remain about ABOi heart transplantation in children aged over 2 years and it has not been routinely adopted. At our centre we have considered candidates aged 2-9 years for ABOi donors if isohaemagglutinin titres were 1:32 or less. We report the outcomes of those who received an ABOi heart transplant. Furthermore, as all transplant-listed children in this age group were tested for isohaemagglutinins, the potential for ABOi transplant was investigated.

Source: American Journal of Kidney Diseases
The expanding number of surviving kidney transplant patients, driven in part by federal initiatives to increase transplant access for patients with advanced CKD, has strained the capacity of the existing transplant nephrology workforce to manage longer-term post-transplant recipients. As patients are living longer with working allografts, the need for effective long-term management has become very important. This can only be achieved by closer collaboration between transplant centers and referring nephrologists. There is, therefore, a great need for closer involvement of referring nephrologists in providing care for this medically complex patient population, necessitating ongoing bidirectional communication with transplant centers. The American Society of Transplantation Kidney Pancreas Community of Practice organized a Controversies Conference in October 2022 to identify major challenges and propose guidance for collaborative, safe and standardized care transition and longitudinal management of this population.