Mayo Clinic, Terasaki Institute announce research collaboration for improving organ transplant outcomes

Mayo Clinic and Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation announced today a research collaboration centered on improving organ transplant outcomes.

Beginning in April, Mayo Clinic biomedical researchers and Terasaki Institute scientists will work together on two core areas: real-time monitoring of donated organ health from procurement to transplant surgery and developing predictive technologies to determine which transplant recipients have a higher likelihood of rejection. That will be done by creating prognostic signatures and assays for antibody-mediated rejection of organ transplant. These initial projects are expected to take 24 to 30 months to complete.

As the largest organ transplant provider in the United States, Mayo Clinic is deeply invested in finding innovative solutions to improve transplant care for patients. That is why we are so excited about this new collaboration with the Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation. Bringing these two institutions together with the same goal of improving transplant outcomes for patients will positively affect many lives."

Burcin Taner, M.D., chair of the Transplant Center at Mayo Clinic in Florida and chair of Mayo Clinic Transplant Specialty Council

"We are also very excited about our collaboration with Mayo Clinic," says Ali Khademhosseini, Ph.D., director and CEO of the Terasaki Institute of Biomedical Innovation. "We're looking forward to conducting impactful research to enhance the quality of life for transplant patients, and we are happy to build upon the work of Dr. Paul I. Terasaki, a pioneer in the field of organ transplantation, who founded the original Terasaki Institute." 

More than 103,000 people in the U.S. are on the waiting list for an organ transplant. Every eight minutes, another person is added to the transplant waiting list.

This latest collaboration is part of Mayo Clinic's Transforming Transplant initiative, which has the bold goal of providing organ transplants for everyone who needs one. The initiative was created as a collaboration between Mayo Clinic's Transplantation programs and Mayo Clinic's Center for Regenerative Biotherapeutics. Its goals include:

• Restoring donated organs by optimizing them for best outcomes and decreasing discard rates.
• Preventing organ failure in patients who have received organ transplants.
• Preventing organ failure and the need for a transplant through early diagnosis of organ dysfunction.
• Engineering new organs, subsequently eliminating the uncertainty of organ donation and long waits.

Mayo Clinic Transplant Center, with locations in Arizona, Florida and Minnesota, has performed more than 32,000 organ transplants since 1963.