Research Areas
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Research at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute ranges from fundamental questions in transplantation biology to translational and clinical endeavors aimed at improving the outcomes of solid organ transplantation and ultimately, inducing immunological tolerance.
The experimental models used range from simple invertebrate organisms to rodents and non-human primates. Human immunology studies in both adult and pediatric patient populations are frequently undertaken to elucidate the mechanisms of allograft acceptance (tolerance) and to develop novel strategies to induce tolerance in organ recipients.
The types of organ grafts that are the subject of our research include abdominal organs (the liver, kidney, pancreas, pancreatic islets, and small bowel), thoracic organs (heart and lungs), and composite tissue grafts (e.g., limbs). |
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Innate Immunity
- Mechanisms of innate allorecognition
- Influence of the innate immune system on tolerance induction
- Role of the innate immune system in acute and chronic rejection
- Ischemia-reperfusion injury and organ preservation
Dendritic Cell Immunobiology
- How do dendritic cells orchestrate alloimmunity?
- Role of dendritic cell subsets in rejection and tolerance
- Dendritic cells as a potential cellular therapy for tolerance induction
- Immunobiology of liver dendritic cells
Adaptive Immunity
- Lymphoid tissues and the initiation of the adaptive alloimmune response
- Role of T lymphocyte deletion in tolerance induction
- Memory T-cells in organ transplantation
- Regulation of the adaptive alloimmune response
Immunological Tolerance (Potential Strategies & Mechanisms)
- Hematopoietic chimerism
- Dendritic cell therapy
- Mechanisms of transplantation tolerance
- clonal T cell exhaustion or deletion
- immune regulation
- immune ignorance
- Why are liver allografts ‘tolerogenic’?
Xenotransplantation
- Identification of novel xeno-antigens
- Humoral and cellular mechanisms of xenograft rejection
- Genetic engineering of pigs for xenotransplantation
- Pre-clinical, non-human primate studies (heart, kidney and pancreatic islets)
Cell Transplantation
- Hepatocyte transplantation
- Pancreatic islet transplantation
Liver Research
- Hepatic immunology
- Mechanisms of hepatic regeneration
- Biology of liver inflammation
- Biology of liver stellate cells
- Molecular virology of hepatitis
- Hepatocellular carcinoma
- Molecular mechanisms
- Novel anti-cancer agents
Human Immunology
- Immunological monitoring of the transplant recipient
- Mechanisms of allograft acceptance (tolerance) in humans
- Mechanisms of acute and chronic allograft rejection in humans
- Immunogenetics
- Viral infections in transplantation (see below)
Viral Infections in Clinical Transplantation
- Biology and therapy of polyoma BK virus infection
- Biology and cellular therapy of Epstein Barr virus infection and its impact on PTLD
- Biology and therapy of viral hepatitis in liver transplant recipients
Clinical Research
- Tolerance induction in humans via lymphocyte depletion and hematopoietic chimerism
- Minimizing immunosuppression in transplant recipients
- Immunological monitoring for safe withdrawal of immunosuppressive agents
- Novel immunosuppressive agents
- Pharmacological monitoring
- Therapy of hepatoma and hepatocellular carcinoma
- Bio-artificial liver assist device
- Deceased donor management to improve the quality of donated organs
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