The 2026-2027 Board of Directors nomination window is now open! The AST is currently accepting nominations for President, Treasurer, and three Councilors-at-Large. The election will begin in April 2026, and newly elected board members will begin their terms on June 22, 2026, following the AST Town Hall at the American Transplant Congress.

On behalf of the AST, the European Society for Organ Transplantation (ESOT), and The Transplantation Society (TTS), we are excited to invite you to attend 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.

As the 2025 AST membership year begins to close, don't forget to renew your membership and reaffirm your commitment to the AST. Renewal invoices were distributed via email and are due December 31, 2025. If you didn't receive your email, you may log in anytime to your AST member account. Don't miss out on all future AST educational, networking, advocacy, and research efforts!

The Donation Derby is back — and your Community of Practice (COP) needs your support! Every gift you make helps fund your COP’s initiatives and projects and brings them one step closer to victory. Rally behind your COP, make a donation, and help them race to the top!

Join us at CEoT 2026, a three-day meeting focused on advancing transplantation science, clinical practice, and patient outcomes. This meeting will explore the future of transplantation across all organ types, highlighting innovation, equity, and lifelong patient care. Hear from leading experts and engage in interactive breakout sessions across specialties, focusing on emerging technologies, allocation strategies, and the changing landscape of organ disease.

The AST is now accepting applications for its 2026 Career Development Grant cycle! These grants promote the careers of early-career investigators whose research relates to solid organ transplantation (and/or immunology relating to solid organ transplant).

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.

Renal resistance (RR) during hypothermic perfusion is commonly used as a factor to assess kidney quality, with most studies focusing on terminal RR measurements. We fitted a linear model to the entire RR trajectory using data from the randomized Consortium for Organ Preservation in Europe COMPARE trial and explored the relationship between the RR trajectory, donor characteristics, and posttransplant outcomes, also assessing the prognostic value of terminal RR for delayed graft function (DGF). Donor weight (F = 5.32; P = .005) and cause of death (F = 2.91; P = .008) were associated with the RR trajectory, whereas active oxygenation had no effect (F = 1.12; P = .33). 

Source: American Journal of Transplantation
The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of end-ischemic hypothermic oxygenated perfusion (HOPE) used before liver transplantation (LT) with extended criteria donor (ECD) organs from donation after brain death (DBD) in reducing early allograft dysfunction (EAD) compared to static cold storage (SCS). Between 2019 and 2023, 262 ECD-DBD grafts from 8 French centers were randomly assigned for LT either after SCS (control group,n=131) or after SCS and subsequent 1-4 h single portal HOPE before implantation (HOPE group,n=131). The primary endpoint was the incidence of EAD. HOPE resulted in a significantly lower rate of EAD (17.6%vs.30.5%,p=0.01). Severe complication rate (61.5%vs.52.4%,p=0.15), comprehensive complication index (49[34-65]vs.46[35-65],p=0.78) and 90-day mortality (5.3%vs.2.3%,p=0.20) did not differ significantly between the control and HOPE groups, respectively. Four patients (4.9%) in the control group and 3 patients (3.3%) in the HOPE group experienced ischemic cholangiopathy at 1 year after LT (p=0.71). 
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Source: Wiley Online Library
Data on disseminated herpes zoster (HZ) infections in solid organ transplant (SOT) recipients are limited. We aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and outcomes of HZ infection in SOT patients presenting with microbiologically confirmed disease.