Newsletter 2011 Volume 8 - Issue 3

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A Warm Welcome to Berlin We would like to welcome you to a city that has evolved into one of the most influential capitals in Europe. Just over twenty years after its reunification, Berlin has once again become the gateway to Eastern Europe. The city’s vibrant cultural life recalls the era of the roaring 1920s, its centuries-old academic reputation continues to inspire students, and breathtaking modern architecture repopulates previously fallow grounds. The Wall truly has been torn down. The 24th International Congress Likewise, the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society (TTS) aims to overcome frontiers in transplantation and to provide a platform for scientific and educational exchange. We invite all physicians, surgeons, scientists, procurement personnel and nurses who are interested in clinical and research aspects of transplantation to make the congress a valuable event. A comprehensive Postgraduate Weekend preceding the congress, a special session entitled “Education & Training in Transplantation” (hosted by the TTS Educational Committee) and a Surgical Skills Lab during the congress emphasize the teaching mission of our program. Scientific Program As an opener to the 24th International Congress, two German Collaborative Research Centers (SFB 633 and SFB 738) will present their research on T-cell immunology in a one-day conference. Free admission to all our registered delegates has been granted. Furthermore, 20 International Program Committees chaired by representatives of The Transplantation Society and the Deutsche Transplantationsgesellschaft have developed an outstanding scientific program addressing the four main subjects of the congress: Immunosuppresion Long-term effects of immunosuppression are manifold, varying from direct toxicity to the increased risk of secondary disease. Strategies to deal with the shortcomings of current regimens and new discoveries will be addressed. Furthermore, approaches to as well as requirements for tailored therapies or operational tolerance will be discussed. Improving Standards in Transplantation Although transplantation medicine is a well-established therapy today, surgical techniques are a focus of constant debate. Furthermore, demographic changes demand modified treatment protocols based on careful analysis of outcome measures. Organ Scarcity Organ scarcity is a well-known obstacle to solid organ transplantation and marginal donor organs may compromise short and long term results. Therefore, new approaches to improve the donor organ quality will be discussed. Also, alternatives to conventional transplantation need to be considered: cell transplantation, artificial devices and regenerative medicine demonstrate exciting developments. Psychological and Ethical Challenges Since the beginning of transplantation medicine, psychological, ethical and legal challenges have been present and have influenced public opinion. New techniques like living donation, composite tissue transplantation or donation after cardiac death have raised new questions that also need to be addressed. Forum Futurum We are introducing a new and exciting feature: The Forum Futurum will provide a podium and additional display booths in a highly interactive setting. Companies and research groups are invited to share their highly innovative ideas on Medical Imaging, Tailored Pharmacotherapy and Regenerative Medicine. Call for Abstracts The International Program Committee of the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society is pleased to invite the submission of scientific abstracts, commencing in October 2011. For detailed submission guidelines please visit the congress website (www.transplantation2012.org) or send an email to: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We cordially invite you and your colleagues together with your friends and family to Berlin. Your active participation will be fundamental for a memorable event in 2012. Follow us on Twitter (@TTS2012 or #TTS2012) or join the mailing list at www.transplantation2012.org. Prof. Dr. Peter Neuhaus, Chair 2012 Transplantation Congress

The Transplantation Society’s (TTS) executive team met with Prof. Neuhaus and his team in September for an update on the progress of the preparations for next year’s TTS congress in Berlin, Germany, to be held July 14-19, 2012. A visit to the Berlin International Congress Center showed that the expected attendance of approximately 5,000 could be well accommodated. The scientific program committee is already busily at work and the preliminary program outline promises an outstanding event that will cover the most interesting aspects of modern transplantation medicine and science. If the rich program alone doesn’t entice you to include the Congress on your 2012 schedule right away, then its setting surely will. Berlin, Germany’s capital, is a city of cosmopolitan and international character that offers many cultural opportunities and a wide variety of recreational activities. Berlin is getting ready to welcome you! At its annual retreat in September, TTS Council endorsed unanimously a partnership of TTS and the Collaborative Transplant Study (CTS) organ transplant registry, underscoring a need for global documentation and analysis of organ transplant activities. Because many countries are lacking national registries, transplant centers often do not have access to the necessary tools for documentation and analysis of their data. As a result of the partnership agreement, all members of TTS will have access, free of charge, to a CTS software package specifically developed for transplant documentation and analysis at individual transplant centers. The package has the advantages that it can function freestanding on its own, so that each center remains in possession and control of its own data, and that forwarding of data to the central registry will be voluntary and anonymous. It also offers the possibility for use as a regional or national registry, thus eliminating the need for costly software development in countries that are in need of a registry platform. It is hoped that additional, already existing single-center databases and national registries will join this global initiative and contribute to the global transplantation database under the auspices of TTS. TTS will nominate a Scientific Advisory Board that will oversee and support future function of this joint activity. International standardization of the data dictionary, free-of-charge software updates, informal membership in a global community devoted to the science and improvement of transplantation medicine, and access to an extensive global resource of transplant outcome data are some of the advantages associated with joining the new activity. The registry functions will include those of the existing CTS registry, which can be viewed at: www.ctstransplant.org. We hope that many TTS members will take advantage of this attractive offer. Specific information on how to obtain this software can be obtained by writing to the Director of Headquarter Services at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Gerhard Opelz, President

To better fulfill The Transplantation Society’s (TTS) mission and serve its membership, which now numbers over 5,000 in 88 countries, we have reorganized and increased our staff in the International Headquarters (IHQ) in Montreal. With the growing volume and diversity of work at the IHQ, the workload of the Director of Society Operations, Filomena Picciano, had become overwhelming. Therefore, the TTS Executives decided to divide her responsibilities into two parts and recruit another senior member for the team. Jean-Pierre Mongeau has joined TTS as Director of Headquarter Services (DHS; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.). Having a background in management consulting, the key strengths that Jean-Pierre brings to this newly created role are a broad understanding of current management practices and processes, and the ability to manage teams to deliver multiple projects simultaneously in a timely fashion. Jean-Pierre will be responsible for issues such as Membership, Council support, Global Alliance in Transplantation, Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group, Finances, Communication (Journal, Newsletter, TTS Website), IHQ IT, and Education. As Director of Professional Services (DPS; email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Filomena Picciano will oversee the Professional Congress Organizers (PCO), enabling her to focus on issues concerning TTS and Sections Congresses and Meetings: Conferences, Meeting Finances, Corporate Sponsors, Continuing Medical Education (CME) compliance, Women in Transplantation and Sections’ Websites. Other changes in the IHQ include the transferring of responsibility for membership issues from Frank Lindo Verissimo to Alexandra Murphy. Frank will now focus on exhibits for the meetings, working more closely with Filomena and Catherin Parker. Lastly, Sherri Williams has joined the IHQ staff as receptionist and administrative assistant. This new structure will ensure that we maintain the best possible service to our membership on a daily basis in the IHQ while enhancing our PCO role to plan, organize and run congresses and meetings of the highest caliber, consistent with TTS’ mission.

Participants of the collaborative meeting in Skopje, Macedonia in June 2011 The Transplantation Society (TTS) is collaborating with The European Society of Transplantation (ESOT), the International Society of Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) and the European Transplant Coordinators Organization (ETCO) to assist The Regional Health Development Center (RHDC) of Croatia in the development of deceased donation and ethically proper live donation throughout Southeastern Europe. The countries participating in this project include: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Serbia, Slovenia, and Romania. The objective has been to develop an action plan for each country that establishes a competent authority to oversee the practice of organ donation and transplantation in that country. The initial meeting was held in Zagreb, Croatia in February 2011, but a subsequent conference was held in Skopje, Macedonia in June. Dr. Henrik Ekberg, TTS Director of Medical Affairs and Dr. Francis Delmonico, TTS President-Elect, have been working diligently with Rutger Ploeg of ESOT, Günter Kirste of ISODP and Rui Maio of ETCO to support Dr. Mirela Busic of Croatia in leading this effort. Dr. Ekberg created a booklet of the action plans derived from each of the countries that will be submitted to the Ministry of Health of each participating country. That action plan calls for a competent authority to utilize the critical pathway of deceased organ donation developed by the World Health Organization in identifying and referring potential organ donors. It calls upon the competent authority to conduct death audits to assure the appropriate referral of potential organ donors and to manage those donors medically prior to organ recovery. Each country should provide resources for professional training and education of physicians and transplant coordinators within intensive care units and donor hospitals. Each country should also develop a central registry, which provides for an annual report of deceased organ donation detailing the distribution of organs to a waitlist of patients authorized by the competent authority. Finally, public education is needed to engage society in the support of deceased organ donation. These efforts have been done in the background of the Declaration of Istanbul and the Resolution of the World Health Assembly of 2010 endorsing the guiding principles of the World Health Organization. Representatives from TTS plan to visit each of the Balkan countries over the course of the next 3 years to work with the national focal point person participating in this RHDC program in securing the attention and support of the countries’ Ministries of Health. The next meeting is planned for Ljubljana, Slovenia in March 2012.

2012 will be an election year for The Transplantation Society (TTS) In 2012, three Officer positions will be vacated and 6 of the 12 councilors-at-large representing the regions will be changing. The officer positions are: President-Elect, Treasurer and Secretary. The TTS Regions are North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia, Middle East / Africa, and Oceania. The elections will take place early in 2012 and those elected will assume their new roles following the 2012 Congress in Berlin. Nominations are being sought for these positions. In addition to the paper nomination form that was sent out with the invoice for the 2012 membership dues, this year we have instituted an online nomination process. Either the paper form or the online form can be used. Since each nominee must have his or her form signed by two other supporting members, the online process allows for more efficient and rapid circulation. Members can access the online nominating form (the link will be provided at the end of November) . Please note: Only full members who have paid their dues may vote. For more information on elections, visit the TTS website (www.tts.org) and consult the by-laws in the “About” section.

The Transplantation Society’s (TTS) President-Elect Francis L. Delmonico visited Hyderabad and Chennai, India on June 26-29, 2011 to meet with government officials and NGOs to further advance deceased organ donation programs in India. Members of the Mohan Foundation meet in Hyderabad with the goal of furthering deceased organ donation programs in India On June 27th in Hyderabad, the Multi Organ Harvesting Aid Network (MOHAN) Foundation, under the auspices of Lalitha Raghuram, convened an outstanding ceremony that was attended by Minister of Health D.L. Ravindra Reddy and Dr. Sudheer Gupta, CMO, Central Government Health Services. The ceremony was the background for the unfolding of the Jeevandaan Program. The word “jeevandaan” means “gift of life”—the deceased organ donation program was developed with this idea in mind by Dr. Ravi Raju Tatapudi, who is the Director of Medical Education for the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Dr. Delmonico’s next stop was Chennai, where there is an exemplary program of deceased donation underway for Tamil Nadu, a state whose organ donor rate is 1.2 per million population which is 15 times the national average and with a great potential to grow. On June 28th, he had the occasion to meet the Chief Minister Jayalalithaa Jayaram who has assigned her staff to take the necessary next steps in accomplishing an expanded deceased donation in the region. As a representative of TTS, Dr. Delmonico was encouraged to witness the success of Tamil Nadu in bringing such accomplishment to the attention of the global transplantation community. “Once again the MOHAN Foundation has been instrumental with much congratulations to Sunil Shroff, Managing Trustee of the Mohan Foundation,” said Dr. Delmonico. He and Dr. Shroff met with P.W.C. Davidar, the Principal Secretary for the Government of Tamil Nadu, and together they set forth incremental steps to achieve a successful deceased donor program melding the mission of the private and public sectors. Mr. Davidar will address hospital administrators to permit certified transplant coordinators to visit the intensive care units and develop relationships with the professional staff, an important step that will help increase organ donation. The current reality is that organs obtained from private hospitals are distributed to public sector patients by a common waiting list that now exceeds more than 1,000 candidates for kidney transplantation. Approximately 6 donors a month are being realized, but those numbers can and will be much increased now that there is support from the government. Dr. Ravi Raju Tatapudi and Dr. Francis L. Delmonico celebrate the unfolding of the Jeevandaan Program Dr. Delmonico credited Immediate Past President Jeremy R. Chapman for his key role in paving the way in India and recognizing the country’s importance for transplantation globally. He said: “None of what is proceeding now could have occurred without Dr. Chapman’s many years of interaction with nephrology and transplantation in India.” TTS will continue to support the initiatives taken in India and will foster its relationships with Biocon and Panacea to maintain its presence in India with the overall goal of enhancing deceased organ donation.

An almost perfect meeting: The XII Basic Science Symposium (BSS) of The Transplantation Society (TTS)/II ESOT Basic Science Meeting was held from June 11–14, 2011, co-jointly organized with the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT). In keeping with tradition, the spectacular location of the Ocean Edge Resort in Brewster, Massachusetts was chosen. The meeting received a record number of abstract submissions and was attended by close to 200 participants from five continents. The line-up of invited experts in the fields of transplantation and neighboring research areas was outstanding. Two of the many highlights were the keynote lecture by Mauro Ferrari on “Recent developments in Nanomedicine and their Relevance and Application in Organ Transplantation,” and a Women in Transplantation event with Anita Chong as the invited speaker. The Basic Science Committee of TTS has been very active in supporting young researchers, particularly in the past two years. Under the guidance of Anita Chong and Stefan G. Tullius, the committee has initiated mentor/mentee awards to foster the relationship between junior and senior scientists. TTS awarded a total of 14 mentor/mentee grants to attend the BSS, of which 11 were co-sponsored with the ESOT, the American Society of Transplantation, the British Transplantation Society, the Canadian Society of Transplantation, the Société Francophone de Transplantation, the Japan Society for Transplantation, and The Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand. Those awards, in addition to 11 travel grants, were presented during the gala dinner event at the BSS. From left to right: Stefan G. Tullius (Meeting Chair, Co-Chair BSC of TTS), Mauro Ferrari (Keynote Speaker, BSS 2011), Carla C. Baan (President of ESOT and meeting Co-Chair), Anita Chong (Co-Chair, BSC of TTS) After four days of exciting science and networking, the symposium wrapped up with the rain ending and the sun coming through the clouds—a perfect ending to the 2011 BSS. The next Basic Science Symposium co-jointly organized with ESOT will take place in Europe—we are looking forward to seeing you again in 2013. Other Basic Science Activities to be on the look out for in 2012: Up to 25 Mentor/Mentee grants will be awarded at the Berlin XXIV Congress. Be on the lookout for applications at the Congress Website (www.transplantation2012.org) and also on the TTS website (www.tts.org)! New TTS International Basic Science Research Exchange Fellowships—call for applications will be in January 2012. New TTS International Basic Science Pre-doctoral Fellowships—call for applications will be in December 2012.

From left to right: Mitra Mahdavi-Mazdeh and her mentor Elmi Muller meet for the first time at the ESOT Congress in Glasgow When I was asked to be a mentor for the Women in Transplantation (WIT) mentorship program, the first thought I had was that I am not experienced or senior enough to be a mentor. But after thinking about it, I decided to do it in any case: I had a great avenue of senior colleagues I could ask for help if I needed it. I have had a lot of support in my life from other specialists in my field and this has made a huge difference to me, so I accepted the invitation and a few weeks later I was sent the names of my 2 mentees. What to do next was a simple question—I decided to write a very personal letter to them, introducing myself with the hope of getting to know each other. This was the start of a great friendship, which is in progress but will hopefully develop in the near future into a very special relationship. I was privileged and excited when I heard one of my mentees, Mitra, was coming to Glasgow to attend the ESOT congress in September 2011. We arranged to meet and Mitra gave me a wonderful jewelry box from Iran, which reminds me of our special friendship every day. I am hoping that we can work together to firstly give her the chance to participate in a webinar from The Transplantation Society and then also to present a combined poster or mini-oral for the Berlin 2012 World Congress addressing some of the issues we both share as professionals working in developing countries. The future is bright if we have friendships across international borders and we can address our issues as friends rather than on a formal level. The WIT group will be vital in this and I hope to have the opportunity to meet my other mentee, Eija, in the near future as well. Elmi Muller Congratulations to Elmi Muller who was recently elected as President of the Southern African Transplantation Society! Sponsored by Pfizer

Curie Ahn and Kathryn J. Wood at the CAST networking event in Seoul, Korea, September 2011 The first networking event in Asia hosted by Women in Transplantation (WIT) was held during the 12th Congress of the Asian Society of Transplantation (CAST) in Seoul, Korea in September 2011. More than 50 women from 9 Asian countries as well as Italy, Brazil and USA attended from all of the field’s professional disciplines. As well as getting to know one another, the women attending the event were inspired by the presentation from Dr. Curie Ahn. Dr. Ahn, a physician scientist, spoke about her career path, including the challenges she had faced and overcome as the first female professor in the Department of Medicine at Seoul National University. She described her philosophy for success, particularly the things that motivate and guide her in her quest for clinical and research excellence. Dr. Ahn is also a mentor in the WIT international mentoring programme (www.tts-wit.org). During her presentation, she encouraged her colleagues in Asia, both junior and senior, to take part in the programme, since in her experience having good mentors is an essential part of establishing a successful career as a transplant professional. Sponsored by Pfizer

Ten TTS-Astellas Young Investigator Awards were presented to TTS members with the highest scoring abstracts during the Vancouver Congress. TTS has been profiling the award winners throughout the year in Tribune. FAISAL KHAN CANADA Faisal Khan is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Calgary. Dr. Khan’s research is focussed on the areas of transplantation immunology, histocompatibility and immunogenetics. He has published more than 40 research articles and reviews in reputed scientific journals including Blood, Transplantation, and Bone Marrow Transplantation. Dr. Khan received a Young Investigator Award for his abstract entitled Genomic Instability after Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation (HCT) is Frequent in Oral Mucosa, Particularly in Patients with a History of Chronic Graft-vs-Host Disease (GVHD), and Rare in Nasal Mucosa. In this study, his research group has shown that genomic instability after HCT occurs exclusively in allogeneic HCT recipients and it occurs frequently in oral but rarely in nasal epithelia. Further, the study showed that occurrence of genomic instability is significantly associated with the history of chronic GVHD. This may explain why carcinoma after HCT frequently involves some (especially those involved with cGVHD e.g., oral) but not other (e.g., nasal) epithelia. Dr. Khan received this award while working as a Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics Fellow at the University of Calgary. KATE MARKEY AUSTRALIA Kate Markey was granted a Young Investigator Award for her paper introducing GVHD-associated immune suppression is the result of an intrinsic defect in MHC class II antigen presentation within donor DC. Her work aimed to define the mechanism underlying this immuno-suppression by using mouse models of experimental GVHD. Her data confirm that GVHD-induced immune suppression is a consequence of an intrinsic acquired defect in MHC class II antigen presentation within cDC. This represents a paradigm shift in the understanding of the infective complications of transplantation and suggests that alloreactivity per se is the major factor responsible for pathogen associated morbidity and mortality. Dr. Markey completed the MBBS/PhD program at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia in 2010. Her PhD was conducted in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Laboratory at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (under the supervision of Prof. Geoff Hill and Dr. Kelli MacDonald). This resulted in a number of publications, as both a first author and co-author in journals including Nature Medicine, Blood, and The Journal of Immunology. At this stage, she intends to continue her clinical training and pursue her research interests, with the overall goal of developing a career as a clinician-researcher. SUSUMU SHIBASKI JAPAN Susumu Shibasaki was granted a Young Investigator Award for his abstract entitled A Single Infusion of the Ex-vivo Generated Immuno-Regulatory Dendritic Cells under a Novel Agent, NK026680 Markedly Prolongs Cardiac Allograft Survival. NK026680 treated dendritic cells (NK-DCs) acquired immuno-regulatory properties that suppress allo-immune responses, and this modulation on NK-DCs was associated with inhibition of p38-MAPK phosphorylation but upregulation of IDO expression. Further, a single in vivo infusion of NK-DCs significantly increased the proportion of regulatory T cells such as Tr1 cells and CD4+ CD25+ FoxP3+ T-cells, and markedly prolonged cardiac allograft survival. Thus, he believes that infusion therapy with DCs modulated by ex vivo NK026680 conditioning has great potential as a treatment modality for the prevention of allograft rejection by enhancing immunoregulatory function. Dr. Shibasaki was born in Japan, graduated from the School of Medicine at Hokkaido University, and is a general surgical registrar at Hokkaido University Hospital. In 2008, he began his PhD studies in the transplantation research group of Prof. Todo. Currently, his research focuses on the immunoregulatory effects of ex-vivo generated dendritic cells.

On this 20th anniversary of the Cell Transplant Society (CTS), it is time to reflect on how we started, where we are now and where we are going. The CTS began with a membership primarily focused on pancreas and islet research, in the image of CTS creator Camillo Ricordi. Soon, however, members expanded to two lines of study—both pancreas and liver. It must be remembered that the first clinical hepatocyte transplants were not conducted until after the society was established, so initially hepatocyte work was a minor component of the membership’s research. Over the intervening years, the interests of membership began to diversify, with dominant roles in the society leadership and meeting activity remaining centered around liver and pancreas/islet research, but with significantly more input from members with interests that included cardiovascular, muscle, bone and cartilage, neuroscience, and stem cell—ranging from bone marrow to pluripotent stem cells. This year, during our 20th anniversary, the diversity of society interests were prominently displayed by poster and oral presentations at the joint CTS-IXA meeting in Miami on October 23-26, 2011. There is strength in this diversity, and the opportunity for cross-fertilization of ideas and technology from vastly different directions has never been greater. Mark your calendars — CTS 2013 will be held in Milan, Italy.

The second WHO-IXA Global Consultation on Regulatory Requirements for Xenotransplantation Clinical Trials took place in Geneva in October 2011 in the presence of representatives from health authorities from more than 15 countries. Safety and infectious disease transmission risk mitigation were central to the discussions that took place at this second consultation and the key recommendations of this meeting are summarized on the IXA website: www.tts.org/ixa. The 2011 CTS/IXA Joint Congress held in Miami last month brought together world leaders in xenotransplantation and in cellular therapies, tissue engineering, biomaterials, nanotechnologies, stem cells and regenerative medicine to catalyze an unprecedented level of scientific and translational exchange in these complementary fields of science and technology. The Joint Congress was a great success and represented also an opportunity to bring together first class scientists and business leaders to catalyze unprecedented collaborative efforts, from basic science to applied research and delivery of novel therapeutic solutions to humankind. Please take note that the 2013 IXA meeting will be held in Osaka, Japan. Finally, the results of the recent IXA Council election were announced at the IXA Business Meeting during the CTS/IXA 2011 Joint International Congress in Miami. The structure of the new Council can now be found on the IXA website at: www.tts.org/ixa.

On September 3, 2011, the Transplant Infectious Disease (TID) section had a very exciting 5th International Transplant Infectious Disease meeting in Glasgow, Scotland. The meeting was held just before the European Society of Organ Transplantation meeting. Seventeen speakers discussed cutting-edge topics, ranging from donor-derived infections, immunologic assays, and optimal fungal diagnostics, to antibiotic resistance in transplant patients. Multiple speakers discussed prevention of infection, including CMV. Additional topics included hepatitis E, HIV and organ transplant, CMV resistance, and novel vaccination strategies in transplant patients. Over one hundred attendees from all over the world helped provide interesting discussion. The meeting finished with presentations of complicated cases in transplant infectious disease, which helped summarize and highlight many of the interesting talks from earlier in the day. A lively networking dinner was held afterwards at The Corinthian Club. TID hopes to hold another meeting in the near future, and welcomes suggestions on future topics and speakers from all members of The Transplantation Society.

On November 26-29, 2011, the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (ISODP) held its 11th Congress in Buenos Aires, Argentina. There were a number of highly qualified presentations with state-of-the-art lectures and of course, much opportunity for discussion among conference participants. The highlights of the conference were aspects of safety in organ donation concerning infectious diseases and malignancies. There were also a number of presentations about the issue of donor detection in DCDs and DB, and new aspects of living donation were also discussed. Additionally, an overview of the current situation of organ donation, especially in South America and other countries, was the benchmark discussion among participants and experts. The ISODP has gone through a process of revising and finalizing its bylaws, including a new voting procedure that will be explained to its members. The current board is very much looking forward to the nomination of people working in the field who are willing to engage themselves in the ISODP. The ISODP is pleased to announce the 2011 Transplant Coordinator Scholarship Program, a joint project of The Transplantation Society and the ISODP, made possible once again by the generous support of Astellas Pharmaceuticals. The program is open to all who are working in the field of organ donation outside of North America, and provides funds for a quality education in an experienced country. Details of the application can be found on our website: www.isodp.org. The scholarship program was a great success two years ago, and has led to numerous activities in the recipients’ home countries. Our board is looking forward to receiving this next round of applications. I hope to see you all in Buenos Aires.

The IHCTAS has been privileged to benefit from the work of professionals dedicated to the advancement of vascularized composite allotransplantation (VCA) (a.k.a. composite tissue allotransplantation or CTA) through their service as Board or Council Members. It is that time again to pass the torch. We are grateful to the services of Past-President Maria Siemionow, Secretary Frederic Schuind, and Council Member Warren Breidenbach for what they accomplished. We welcome President Pedro Cavadas, Vice-President Palmina Petruzzo, Secretary Linda Cendales, Treasurer Jean-Michel Dubernard, Council Members Jerzy Jablecki, Stefan Schneeberger, Christina Kauffman, and Bohdan Pomahac, and International Registry on Hand and Composite Tissue Transplantation (IRHCTT) Delegate Marco Lanzetta. The field continues in its growth period. Currently, 96 patients worldwide who have received a vascularized composite allograft have been reported to the IRHCTT (www.handregistry.com). Among them, 30 received a unilateral hand, 21 received bilateral hands, 2 received single digits, 6 received knees, 3 received femoral diaphysis, 1 received a uterus, 1 received a lower limb, 16 received larynx, 9 received simultaneous intestine and abdominal walls, and 7 received faces. In other news, over the next year we will be working on enlarging the Society’s membership and re-designing the IHCTAS website. We look forward to expanding the visibility of the Society internationally, to better serve the scientific growth of VCA.

The 13th Congress of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA) was held in Prague, capital of the Czech Republic, on June 1-4, 2011. The Congress was an outstanding success. It was attended by 421 registered participants from 35 countries, and provided an excellent opportunity for the exchange of information on novel achievements and emerging challenges on the road to a cure for type 1 diabetes using beta cell replacement. The Scientific Programme included 60 lectures by top experts invited from all over the world, 151 oral and mini-oral presentations and 166 posters. The presentations provided a “state of the art” review of key aspects of the fields of whole pancreas transplantation and islet transplantation, as well as transplantation of insulin-producing tissue from alternative sources. In addition, there were 6 parallel early morning workshops covering some of the practical aspects of pancreas and islet transplantation: assessment of the islet preparation, assessment of the pancreas donor, long-term islet survival, pancreas transplantation techniques, pancreas preservation and islet immunoisolation. Two half-day pre-meeting symposia covered the topics of “Immunosuppression in Pancreas Transplantation” and “Ongoing Challenges of Human Islet Isolation.” As an acknowledgement of their outstanding contributions to the fields of pancreas and islet cell transplantation, David Sutherland from Minneapolis received the Richard Lillehei Award, and Daniel Pipeleers from Brussels received the Paul Lacy Award. An excellent Gala Dinner held at the splendid Zofi Palace complemented the scientific part of the meeting. The IPITA Council would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Local Organising Committee chaired by Frantisek Saudek for organising such a memorable meeting, and to Thierry Berney for all his hard work as Chair of the Programme Committee.

Fritz Heinz Bach, a pioneer transplant immunologist and the Lewis Thomas Distinguished Professor of Immunology (Surgery) at Harvard Medical School died suddenly on Sunday, August 14, 2011 at his home at Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts after a long illness. He was 77 years old. He was generally regarded as one of the early giants of transplant immunology, a visionary whose contributions changed transplant immunology as we know it. His early observations on cell transformations which occur in in vitro cultures of peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL) from unrelated individuals, his studies on the relation of these changes to the alloimmune response and histocompatibility antigens, and his early application of the mixed lymphocyte lymphocyte culture (MLC) assay to the selection of compatible tissue and organ donors unleashed a veritable perfect storm of related progress in experimental and clinical transplantation that persists to this day. Bach was born in Vienna, Austria in 1935. After the infamous Kristallnacht pogrom in November 1938, he and his older brother were sent to safety in England in 1939 via the legendary Kinder Transport organized by the British to rescue over 10,000 predominantly Jewish children that were cared for by British families. After being joined by their parents in England, the Bach family immigrated to Burlington, Vermont in 1949 where Bach attended Burlington Public High School before enrolling in Harvard College as a scholarship student and obtaining a Bachelor's degree in 1955. He went on to Harvard Medical School where he became interested in immunology and genetics and graduated in 1960. Bach undertook internal residency training at New York University where he came under the influence of Lewis Thomas, whom he always credited as being the inspiration for his scientific career. In 1964, Bach and Hirschorn described experiments involving the culture of peripheral blood lymphocytes from two unrelated individuals in vitro for 7-8 days in which some of the cells underwent large cell transformation and division. They estimated the percent of blast cell transformation and mitosis by microscopic examination of fixed smears. They noted that PBL cultures of individuals in whom the probability of sharing HLA antigens had been determined by skin grafting had the lowest number of large cells and mitoses. Bach and Hirschorn suggested that it might be possible to develop mixed lymphocyte cell cultures (MLC) as a typing test for potential recipients and donors of kidney allografts that could identify the most compatible pairs. Later work by Bach and others showed that lymphocytes generated in MLC cultures were cytotoxic to stimulator cells, thereby connecting in vitro alloreactivity with in vivo graft rejection, i.e. the MLC reflected activation of the immune response and the derivative CML reaction (cell mediated lymphotoxicity) represented its effector arm. Bach worked at the University of Wisconsin from 1965 through 1979. In 1967, he used the MLC assay to select non-reactive, compatible donors for the first successful matched bone marrow transplants performed for immunodeficiency diseases first by Robert Good in Minnesota and then by Bach in Wisconsin, with both cases subsequently reported together as twin papers in The Lancet. This was a milestone in clinical bone marrow transplantation (BMT) which presaged the widespread successful application of BMT in the treatment of diseases. Bach and his group performed extensive studies utilizing the MLC and the derivative CML reaction to study multiple aspects of allograft effector mechanisms and histocompatibility antigens which eventually led to his being among the first to conceptualize that there were two kinds of HLA antigens—those defined by serological methods and those defined by MLC techniques (later called Class I and Class II respectively). Bach subsequently worked at the University of Minnesota from 1979 through 1992 where he continued and expanded his basic studies on T-cell immunogenetics and cytotoxicity, HLA function and structure and the H-2 locus. While at Minnesota, he developed an interest in xenotransplantation which fostered productive experimental collaborations with J.L. Platt, and A.P. Dulmasso and others that examined numerous aspects of xenotransplant rejection. In 1992, Bach was recruited by the Department of Surgery of the New England Deaconess Hospital (now part of the merged Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center) and Harvard Medical School to be the Director of the Sandoz Center for Immunobiology Research. The purpose of the new Sandoz Center was to focus collaborative, multidisciplinary research on xenotransplantation and related research areas. Over the next eleven years, he fostered multiple creative and productive collaborations which examined in depth the immunologic, molecular, coagulation/hematologic and genetic mechanisms involved in the genesis and evolution of events leading to xenograft rejection and destruction. A very important outgrowth of these collaborations was that Bach recognized the importance of genes whose purpose it was to provide protection against stress and disease and the need to study how to take advantage of these cytoprotective and homeostatic systems in order to apply them to the prevention and treatment of clinical diseases and inflammatory states. It is noteworthy that in spite of a strong interest in and commitment to xenograft research for the eventual use of xenografts in human clinical transplantation, Bach urged caution against their premature use because of the possibility of introducing serious infections and other diseases into human beings. Bach was author/co-author on approximately 800 papers. He was a gifted, dedicated, and charismatic teacher. He trained, mentored, sponsored, and encouraged hosts of postgraduate students, fellows, and junior faculty who later rose to academic positions of great prominence and responsibility. He was editor of Clinical Immunology (with R.A. Good), and editor-in-chief of Xeno. He was also a respected and important member of the Society of Clinical Investigation, the American Association of Immunologists, Tthe Transplantation Society, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and a charter member of the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry. His numerous awards included the Distinguished Scientist Award of the American Red Cross (1983), the Medal of the College de France (1984), the Emilio Trabucchi Foundation Award (1989), and the Medawar Prize of Tthe Transplantation Society (1995). Fritz Bach was married twice, both marriages ending in divorce. He is survived by his ex-wives, six children, and four grandchildren. Although Bach was passionately and totally engaged in his scientific endeavors, –he also enjoyed wide-ranging interests in classical music, sailing, tennis, travel, food, spy novels and Sunday news shows. He was a warm, friendly, extroverted bon vivant who enjoyed the good things in life and was fun to be with. He genuinely enjoyed being with and socializing with his many friends. They will miss him dearly. Anthony P. Monaco, M.D.

Newsletter 2012 Volume 9 - Issue 2

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Gerhard OpelzPresident All TTS eyes are focused on Berlin, the venue of the 24th International Congress of TTS held on July 15-19, 2012. The international program committee has lined up first-rate plenary speakers, along with the highest-scoring peer reviewed abstracts for oral presentations. We look forward to an outstanding congress program, with top-level presentations from all fields of clinical organ transplantation as well as the transplant-related sciences. It is a pleasure to welcome the world community of transplant professionals to Berlin. As my term as President of TTS comes to an end, I look back on two interesting years that have brought multiple challenges. TTS has evolved to a membership of over five thousand, has become recognized as the world’s leading society representing organ transplantation, and is interconnected with many related professional societies and authorities. Upholding the ethical standards of organ transplantation has been at the center of TTS attention through its close relationship with the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group. In addition, educational and training activities, international support functions (especially in countries in which transplantation is still in a developing phase), interaction with regulatory authorities and industry, and last but not least, the important scientific activities of the TTS Committees and Sections have rounded off the society’s work during my term. I have especially enjoyed seeing the development of the new TTS registry initiative in collaboration with the scientific CTS registry. Although this project is still in its infancy, it is gratifying to know that even in the short to medium-terms, many transplant centers around the world in need of documentation will benefit from this program. And in the long-term, a truly worldwide reference source of transplant data for scientific analysis and evidence-based guidance will eventually emerge as a result of this effort. Throughout my presidency, I was fortunate to have been supported by an extremely cooperative Executive Group and society Council as well as a most competent staff at TTS International Headquarters. Altogether, there is much optimism for the future of this society. Already, plans for the TTS Congresses in 2014 in San Francisco and 2016 in Bangkok are taking on concrete shape, and the long list of activities in which TTS plans to be actively involved in the coming years fills megabytes of computer memory space. I am confident that TTS will continue to serve the world transplantation community well.

TTS would like to thank its members for voting in the recent elections of TTS Officers and Councilors for the term 2012-2014. We are pleased to introduce your new Council. Congratulations to the newLY elected officers and council members. New Officers and Councilors PRESIDENT-ELECT Henrik Ekberg COUNCILOR Shiro Takahara (Asia) COUNCILOR Rudolf Garcia-Gallont (Latin America) SENIOR TREASURER * Marcelo Cantarovich COUNCILOR Vivekanand Jha (Asia) COUNCILOR Megan Sykes (North America) TREASURER John J. Fung COUNCILOR Dirk R. J. Kuypers (Europe) COUNCILOR Stefan G. Tullius (North America) SECRETARY Gabriel Danovitch Returning Officers and Councilors VICE PRESIDENT Ron Shapiro COUNCILOR Vasant Sumethkul (Asia) COUNCILOR Nancy Ascher (North America) COUNCILOR Annika Tibell (Europe) COUNCILOR Elmi Muller (Middle East / Africa) COUNCILOR Maria Cristina Ribeiro de Castro (Latin America) COUNCILOR Philip O’Connell (Oceania)

Francis Delmonico TTS: An Engine of Change The Transplantation Society has undergone an enormous transformation in recent years. Its membership has increased to over five thousand professionals in nearly one hundred countries with transplantation services around the world. As a non-governmental organization (NGO) of the World Health Organization (WHO) in matters of organ donation and transplantation, TTS has been an effective ally to the WHO, achieving international standards of care that were adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2010. The charge of the Declaration of Istanbul not only seeks to prohibit organ trafficking, transplant tourism, and transplant commercialism, but also to foster deceased donation and ethically proper practices of live donation throughout the world. TTS support of the Regional Health Development Center (RHDC) of Croatia in establishing deceased donor transplantation throughout Southeastern Europe is an example of that effective interaction. Recently in Montenegro, TTS and the RHDC leaders Dr. Mirela Bušić and Lydia Raley visited ministry officials Dr. Jadranka Lakićević and Dr. Mira Dašić, as well as Mirjana Djuranović, Senior Adviser for International Cooperation, all shown in the adjacent photo. A well-developed action plan is underway with the alliance of the Ministry of Montenegro and the experienced leadership of Professor Marina Ratković. Key components have been identified that will enhance success—among them, the capacity to determine death by neurologic criteria in the Intensive Care Units of the University Hospital of Montenegro and the engagement and commitment of the Director of the Hospital to assemble a multidisciplinary team to conduct the donation and transplantation program. TTS is currently entering a period of activity that will be unmatched in its intention to support all jurisdictions in their efforts to expand deceased organ donation. The principles and proposals that were established in Istanbul in May 2008 have become the cornerstone of the revised WHO Guiding Principles, urging all member states to address their donation and transplantation needs. TTS is currently entering a period of activity that will be unmatched in its intention to support all jurisdictions in their efforts to expand deceased organ donation. On behalf of the Officers and Councilors of The Transplantation Society, we wish to convey our appreciation to Gerhard for his stewardship of the Society during the past two years and for his continuing role as an Executive of Council in the years ahead.

Henrik Ekberg This issue of Tribune presents several examples of how TTS fulfills its mission. The TTS Congress in Berlin will be a great networking event full of news of exciting developments in transplantation. While we will be travelling through the old airport, we will be heading for new knowledge. The plans for the 2014 TTS Congress in San Francisco, which will be the second World Transplant Congress in collaboration with the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and the American Society of Transplantation, are well under way (see Berlin is Prepared for the Best in Basic Science and Clinical Transplantation on pages 6 and 7 and Announcing the 2014 World Transplant Congress on page 9.) Between the 2012 and 2014 Congresses, TTS will have its alternate year program with specialized interest meetings and TTS sections' meetings. These events will gather together physicians and scientists in cell- or xenotransplantation, intestinal, hand and composite tissue, pancreas and islets, as well as specialists in organ donation and transplant infectious disease (see updates from the CTS, IHCTAS, IPITA, ISODP, ITA, IXA and TID sections on pages 10, 13-15.) TTS is also focusing on supporting colleagues in the forefront of research in Transplantomics and Basic Science (see Transplantomics 2012 La Jolla Conference Report on page 11, and Basic Science Committee Update on page 5.) TTS membership benefits are very substantial: simply by attending one of our many meetings every two years you will save money, but you may be able to profit even further through the Mentor/Mentee programs of the TTS Basic Science Committee and TTS Women in Transplantation initiatives, as well as TTS Research Exchange Fellowship grants, to name a few opportunities. If you take a look at www.tts.org you will see not only news of the society, its sections and the affiliated national societies but also a sector dedicated to continued education. All sessions in TTS meetings and congresses are recorded and may be viewed by TTS members at any time. Additionally, all our webinars may be revisited—one of the most recent webinars concerned the teaching and training of junior transplant physicians. This topic was addressed by Dr. Medhat Askar in a webinar format and will be explored again at the Berlin Congress in Room 42 of the ICC Berlin on Thursday, July 19th from 8:00 to 9:00am. TTS' position on the development of an ethical basis for organ donation and transplantation world-wide is well known. The Declaration of Istanbul (DOI) has now been endorsed by more than 110 organizations and societies in the field. TTS continues its close collaboration with the DOI Custodian Group (please see Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group Update on page 8.) TTS also supports the China Liver Transplant Registry (CLTR) in its endeavours to increase deceased organ donation (after circulatory or brain death), replacing executed prisoners as donors (see TTS Supports China Liver Transplant Registry Efforts to Align Chinese Practices with International Standards on pages 8 and 9.) TTS actively supports the intensive work in the South East European Health Network (SEEHN) led by the Regional Health Development Center in Croatia (RHDC) for the past two years (see Macedonia Meeting Highlights in Tribune Vol. 8 Issue 3, Nov. 2011.) Meetings are scheduled in each country (for example in Montenegro, see Incoming President's Remarks, page 3) and in June 2012 a Symposium took place in Zagreb with participation from all Ministers of the countries in the region (see report to come in a future issue of Tribune.) All sessions in TTS meetings and congresses are recorded and may be viewed by TTS members at any time. TTS has also continued to support the development of deceased donation in Thailand (see TTS and Thai Societies Launch a Model of Collaboration in Tribune Vol. 8 Issue 1, Apr. 2011), and I participated in a one-day meeting on March 18th with the Thai Transplantation Society in Bangkok under the leadership of Vasant Sumethkul, Councillor of TTS and President of the Thai Transplantation Society. Reimbursement for donor hospitals in Thailand has been accomplished, and trauma centers that are potential centers of excellence in organ donation have been identified. Educational programs for intensive care personnel are also being planned. Dr. Mehmet Haberal, former TTS Councilor, Founding President of Baskent University, and a Member of the Turkish Parliament, remains in prison without trial in Turkey for more than three years now. TTS Immediate-Past President Jeremy Chapman, past Councillor Josep Lloveras and Dr. Nadey Hakim visited Dr. Haberal in the Silvri Prison outside of Istanbul in April and reports that he is well but disheartened by his long incarceration. Continuing efforts are being made to bring this state of affairs to the attention of governments on both sides of the Atlantic.

Anita Chong and Stefan Tullius, Basic Science Committee Co-Chairs Transplantation has not stopped moving forward and the field remains exciting, largely based on its progress in basic, translational and clinical research. The 2012 Berlin TTS Congress received close to three hundred abstracts in the categories of Immunobiology and Basic Sciences, a record high. The most recent and outstanding research will be presented in seventy-six Oral and Mini-Oral presentations. In addition, leading investigators in their field will present the most cutting-edge advances in basic transplantation research in eight State of the Art and eight Sunrise Symposia, providing the most up-to-date information and ideas for new research directions. The Basic Science Committee is continuing its collaboration with seven national and regional transplant societies to award up to thirty Mentor/Mentee Travel Awards for the Berlin Congress. We will also be awarding for the first time several TTS—Basic Science Research Exchange Fellowship grants to provide new research opportunities for trainees and established investigators away from their home institutions. Both the mentor/mentee awards and the research exchange fellowships will be awarded during the Basic Science Networking Event on Tuesday, July 17th from 17:30-19:00 at the ICC Berlin in the Oslo Room. We are awaiting this exciting 2012 TTS Congress, anticipating the excellent basic science presentations and most importantly, looking forward to seeing you at the networking celebration. Berlin is a wonderful, hip, metropolitan place, so we are sure that you will enjoy the city as well.

For the Best in Basic Science and Clinical Transplantation Immunologist Leslie Baruch Brent will be honored during the 2012 Berlin Congress Welcome to the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society. After many exciting months of congress preparation, we are delighted that you made it to Berlin, one of the most thrilling cities in Europe. Take part in—and be the most important part of—this trend-setting scientific meeting. The meeting will start with the Postgraduate Weekend on July 14-15, 2012. We are looking forward to discussing current controversial topics in the fields of allocation, surgical procedures and immunosuppression. Concurrent workshops on Saturday will elucidate clinical and immunological issues from concepts of chronic rejection to innate immunity. Sunday's schedule includes a variety of topics presented by outstanding international transplant experts, including "How to make a career in transplantation"—a session that will be of particular interest to young scientists and physicians, and a session with answers and practical tips on the crucial subject of "How to fund research in transplantation." The Opening Ceremony on Sunday, July 15th will introduce you to the International Congress Centre Berlin (ICC Berlin), one of the largest, most advanced and most successful congress venues in the world. The evening's entertainment, provided by The Berlin Comedian Harmonists will take you back in time to the era of the Golden Twenties. You will not want to miss it! The Kulturbrauerei building, site of the Congress Gala Event(Copyright Palais Veranstaltungs GmbH)  You also shouldn't miss the Welcome Reception, which will be held in the Exhibition Hall after the Opening Ceremony. Use this great opportunity to meet your fellow conference attendees, greet long-standing companions, and make new friends. The main congress will offer a versatile and exciting scientific program spanning disciplines from clinical transplantation to basic science. Worldwide-established experts will present the latest results of their research in twenty-six Sunrise Symposia and thirty-seven State-of-the-Art Symposia, giving a comprehensive overview of the field of transplantation. Extraordinary highlights will be presented in six Plenary Sessions. More than two thousand abstract submissions have been received for fifty Concurrent Oral Sessions, forty Mini Oral Sessions and an extensive Poster Exhibition. Each poster in the exhibition will be printed on-site and displayed in the traditional printed format. In addition, convenient Poster Lounges will provide electronic poster displays to promote a scientific exchange in a communicative atmosphere. The Mini Oral Sessions will build bridges between conventional poster presentations and full oral presentations. The President's Plenary on Wednesday, July 18th will feature the 2008 Nobel Prize Laureate Harald zur Hausen, who discovered the role of the human papillomavirus in the development of cervical cancer. Professor zur Hausen will give an outstanding presentation on oncogenic viruses. The famous bust of Queen Nefertiti will be on display at the Neues Museum during a special viewing for Congress delegates (Büste der Königin Nofretete, Neues ­eich, 18. Dynastie Amarna-Zeit um 1340 v. Chr, Kalkstein und Gips,© Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Ägyptisches Museumund Papyrussammlung, Foto: Jürgen Liepe) TTS President Gerhard Opelz will give his presidential address prior to honoring the awardees of the Young Investigator Awards, the Recognition Awards, and the Medawar Prize. A special homage will be paid to Leslie Baruch Brent. Leslie Brent, born in Köslin, Germany (now Koszalin, Poland) escaped the Holocaust and is one of the co-discoverers of acquired immunological tolerance. The Cultural Evening will be very special: On Tuesday, July 17th, the UNESCO World Heritage site Museumsinsel (Museum Island) will open the doors of two of its most interesting museums for TTS Congress delegates only. The first will be the Neues Museum (New Museum), an institution with a history as rich as the Museumsinsel itself. Having been closed for almost seven decades, it was finally revived by the British architect David Chipperfield, who succeeded in uniting the structure's old glory with modern elements. The museum is home to one of the world's most important collections of Ancient Egyptian artifacts, including one of the most graceful pieces of art worldwide: the bust of Queen Nefertiti. The second museum that will be open for TTS delegates only is the Pergamon Museum, one of Germany's most successful art museums. It houses some of the most impressive original-sized monumental buildings of the Middle East, among them the Pergamon Altar. The Gala Event at the Kulturbrauerei will be held on Wednesday, July 18th. Nothing could be a better venue for a social evening than this former brewery building where diverse artists from Berlin will attract, entertain and animate Congress guests. Musical delights will range from traditional popular dance tunes from the roaring 20s, 30s and 40s by the Capital Dance Orchestra, to alternative dance music, to a classy swing band to drum beats. The participants will be able to explore the many different rooms and courtyards of the venue while they sample culinary offerings representing the countless nations that find a second home in Berlin: from kebab to sushi to falafel to sausage. Once again, on behalf of The Transplantation Society and the Deutsche Transplantationsgesellschaft, we welcome you to Berlin and to the 24th International Congress!

2012 MEDAWAR PRIZE The Medawar Prize recognizes the world's most outstanding contributions in the field of transplantation. It is funded from a generous endowment by Novartis Pharma AG to The Transplantation Society (TTS). The 2012 Medawar Prize recipient will be announced at the TTS Presidential Plenary and added to an illustrious group of 27 previous Medawar Laureates. 2012 TTS RECOGNITION AWARDS Recipients of the 2012 TTS Recognition Awards will be announced at the TTS Presidential Plenary. • TTS-Asturias Award for International Cooperation • TTS-Genzyme Award for Education and Training in Transplantation • TTS-Genzyme Award for Innovation in Surgery and Technology • TTS-Novartis Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Evidence Base for Transplantation • TTS-Novartis Award for Outstanding Investigator Driven Clinical Trial • TTS-Roche Award for Outstanding Achievement in Transplantation (Basic) • TTS-Roche Award for Outstanding Achievement in Transplantation (Clinical) • TTS-Roche Award for Excellence in Translational Science • TTS-Roche Award for Transplant Infectious Disease • TTS-Roche Award for Worldwide Impact in Transplantation 2012 TTS YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARDS Ten TTS Young Investigator Awards will be presented to TTS Members with the highest scoring abstracts during the Berlin Congress. These awards will be presented during the TTS Presidential Plenary.

Participants of the national assembly convened in Hangzhou, China in March 2012 The China Liver Transplant Registry (CLTR) is underway in establishing much needed changes in China. Representatives of TTS (Francis Delmonico and John Fung) recently participated in a national assembly sponsored by the Ministry of Health and the Red Cross of China, convened in Hangzhou in March 2012. An invited keynote presentation was made by Dr. Delmonico on behalf of TTS, endorsing the efforts of the CLTR to achieve a transparency of registry events, develop an equitable system of organ allocation, and develop an ethically proper program of deceased donation as an alternative to the use of organs from executed prisoners. TTS commends the leadership of Dr. Haibo Wang in accomplishing these objectives, which are consistent with the Declaration of Istanbul's principles and the Resolution of the 63rd World Health Assembly of 2010. Transparency: The World Health Organization (WHO) has stated clearly in its Revised Guiding Principles that "donation and transplantation activities, as well as their clinical results, must be transparent and open to scrutiny, while ensuring that the personal anonymity and privacy of donors and recipients are always protected." The CLTR has an opportunity to make data transparent by an annual release of information, revealing a reduction in the practice of liver transplantation from executed prisoners. TTS supports this annual report of data from the CLTR, maintaining its position expressed in the following policy statement: The need for transparency and for assembling comprehensive demographic data on the international practice of transplantation dictates that these data should be accepted. The source of the organ or tissue should be clearly identified and recorded as procured from an executed prisoner. Such data should not be incorporated in the total analysis of outcomes of transplantation or other scientific registry studies. Allocation of organs: Drs. Haibo Wang and Sheung Tat Fan have developed an objective ranking index of medical criteria for organ allocation in China to include disease severity, donor recipient age matching, blood type and HLA matching, and waiting time of the candidate. To encourage organ donation, ranking priority is also granted to those who are living donors or any of the immediate family members of a deceased donor. This direction fulfills international standards set forth by the World Health Organization that "the allocation of organs, cells and tissues should be guided by clinical criteria and ethical norms, and not financial or other considerations. Allocation rules, defined by appropriately constituted committees, should be equitable, externally justified, and transparent." The WHO has also suggested that there be Ministerial and public oversight of updated comprehensive reports regarding the system of organ allocation in order to verify equitability and transparency. The proposed geographic distribution of organs within China is initially to the transplant center within the organ procurement organization, then to other regional transplant centers within the Province, and then finally to a national list. New protocol for deceased donation: The CLTR has been a leader in the development of a new program of deceased donation noteworthy for its ethical propriety and consistent with international standards. It entails the determination of death by neurologic criteria. Even though brain death is not yet legally recognized in China, the plan is to facilitate organ donation when brain death is recognized in the intensive care units. Futile support will be withdrawn from such patients after consultation with the family who derives consent for organ donation. Minister Jie-Fu Huang has termed this program "deceased donation with China characteristics." TTS endorses the implementation of this program throughout China as the alternative to the use of organs from executed prisoners.

The June issue of Nature Reviews Nephrology includes a detailed review (Published online: 20 March 2012 | doi:10.1038/nrneph.2012.59) of major international developments since the initial meeting of the Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism in April 2008. As this review describes, there has been substantive positive change in the organ transplant environment of several of the countries designated by the WHO as "hotspots" of trafficking and tourism. Despite these encouraging developments, intractable problems remain. The Custodian Group (DICG) of the Declaration met most recently at the ISODP meeting in Buenos Aires to formulate future plans to be addressed through the activities of its Task Forces and in cooperation with the multiple professional societies and governmental agencies that have endorsed the Declaration. The Declaration has been used as a resource on several occasions by governmental agencies dealing with cases of tourism and trafficking. For the first time, it has become part of national transplant legislation in the new Brazilian transplant law. At the Berlin TTS meeting, a special Declaration of Istanbul Public Session on Monday, July 16th from 7:00-8:15am in Hall 6 of the ICC Convention Center will be devoted to the Declaration and DICG members will update attendees on developments in key countries that have been both "importers" and "exporters" of transplant tourists. Plans are also underway for a fifth anniversary meeting of the Declaration of Istanbul in 2013. To keep updated on the activities of the DICG, please visit the TTS booth at the Congress in Berlin as well as the Declaration's website: www.declarationofistanbul.org. Feel free to approach the website editors, Vivek Jha and Gabriel Danovitch with any material that may be relevant to the site. You may contact them at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Save the Dates: July 26-31, 2014! In 2006, the largest international conference in the field of organ transplantation was held in Boston, Massachusetts, designated as The World Transplant Congress (WTC). This historic meeting was the result of collaboration among The Transplantation Society, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, and the American Society of Transplantation. Attendance reached a record high of over 6,500 participants as well as an additional 1,000 exhibit personnel. The success of the 2006 WTC has propelled the three societies to join together again in developing another special event—they have selected San Francisco, California as the venue for the next WTC. The 2014 WTC is anticipated to be the largest and most comprehensive meeting of its kind. As a venue, San Francisco is one of the top tourist destinations in the world, renowned for its cool summer temperatures, steep rolling hills, and eclectic mix of architecture, as well as its famous landmarks, including the Golden Gate Bridge, cable cars, and Chinatown. The city is also a principal banking and finance center, and home to more than thirty international financial institutions, helping San Francisco rank as one of the world's top producing cities and global financial centers. In addition to the many landmarks and well-known heights and sights, be sure to make time for the city's maritime heart—its waterfront, much of which has been refurbished. When planning your attendance at the 2014 WTC, consider adding time to do a pre- or post-excursion to San Francisco's famous wine country, Sonoma or Napa valley. There will be information available regarding tours as the meeting gets closer. The Program Committee, chaired by Barbara Murphy, will offer a wide range of learning opportunities, including basic science and clinical symposia. A record number of presentations is anticipated for 2014 WTC, recalling that the 2006 WTC received over four thousand abstract submissions. Again, please save the dates and plan to attend the World Transplant Congress on July 26-31, 2014, and be a part of transplant history.

Participants of the Working Groups met in Rome in May 2012 The detection and relevance of HLA antibodies in clinical transplantation was the topic of a meeting held in Rome on May 3-4, 2012. Sponsored by TTS and organized under the leadership of TTS President Gerhard Opelz, together with co-chairs Elaine Reed (Los Angeles) and Frans Claas (Leiden), experts from around the world met for discussion of this highly controversial topic. There were three working groups devoted to technology (chaired by Brian Tait, Melbourne, and Andrea Zachary, Baltimore), pre-transplant testing (chaired by Caner Süsal, Heidelberg) and post-transplant testing (chaired by Peter Nickerson, Winnipeg, and Howard Gebel, Atlanta). Members were: Robert Bray (Atlanta), Patricia Campbell (Edmonton) Jeremy Chapman (Sydney), Toby Coates (Adelaide), Robert Colvin (Boston), Emanuele Cozzi (Padova), Ilias Doxiadis (Leiden), Susan Fuggle (Oxford), John Gill (Vancouver), Denis Glotz (Paris), Suchitra Holgersson (Göteborg), Nils Lachmann (Berlin), Thalachallour Mohanakumar (St. Louis), Nicole Suciu-Foca (New York), Kazunari Tanabe (Tokyo), Craig Taylor (Cambridge), Dolly Tyan (Stanford), and Adriana Zeevi (Pittsburgh). Preparations for the meeting via telephone conferences and email exchanges had been ongoing for six months prior to the meeting, such that the arguments and opinions were well-known to all when the group convened in Rome for this final conference. The meeting turned out to be exceptionally productive. Although there were differences in approaches to clinical testing, particularly between the United States and Europe, sound reasoning prevailed throughout the two-day deliberations. Rounding off the program, issues such as non-HLA antibodies as well as testing for non-renal organ transplants were discussed. While it was impossible to obtain complete uniformity for test recommendations worldwide, acceptable approaches for suitable testing methodology, pre- and post-transplant testing schedules, and the interpretation of results were identified and agreed upon. Guidelines for antibody testing in clinical organ transplantations are currently being finalized for publication. All participants agreed that the consensus conference was timely and most useful and they greatly appreciated the support provided by TTS, which made this entire project possible. Additional travel support was provided by the Canadian Red Cross, the European Federation for Immunogenetics (EFI), the British Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (BSHI), and the German Society for Immunogenetics (DGI).

The XIII International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium, chaired by Professor Peter Friend, will be held in Oxford, UK from June 26-29, 2013. The organizing and scientific committees are currently in the process of finalizing the scientific and social programs. State-of-the-art lectures and debates with roundtable discussions will be the theme of the scientific program. With Oxford's rich cultural history, the social program will be full of exciting tours exploring the different historic and scenic views of the city. For symposium updates, please visit www.isbts2013.org. Dr. Kareem Abu-Elmagd, current President of ITA, along with the ITA Council, is in the process of updating the association's current by-laws to allow Allied Health members to be full voting members with other well-deserved privileges. In addition, the Association, along with the UNOS liver-intestinal committee, was able to change the current organ allocation policy in the United States to better serve short bowel syndrome patients with intestinal and liver failure. With the new policy, the candidates who have a MELD score of 29 or higher will have access to the national donor pool, which will hopefully reduce the observed high mortality rate of wait-listed patients. In current scientific activity news, the 2011 ITR report that was presented at the XII International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium in Washington, DC is currently being published. With the primary authorship of Dr. David Grant, the report declared significant increase in intestinal transplant activities on most continents, with improved early patient and graft survival.

The third "Transplantomics" meeting on functional genomics, genetics, proteomics, microbiomics and biomarker discoveries in transplantation. Jeremy Chapman, TTS Immediate Past President and Daniel R. Salomon, Chair Held in La Jolla, California on March 8-10, 2012 and hosted by TTS and Program Chair Daniel Salomon of The Scripps Research Institute, the Transplantomics conference opened with the challenges confronting transplantation that "omics" may resolve: better understanding of the mechanisms of chronic graft loss, and minimally invasive biomarkers to personalize immunosuppressive therapy and predicted outcomes. Five "state of the art" lectures covered biopsy expression profiling (Philip Halloran), peripheral blood gene expression for acute rejection in kidney and heart transplantation (Bruce McManus), quantitative PCR profiling of urine in kidney transplants (Manikkam Suthanthiran), profiling tolerance in liver and kidney transplants (Alberto Sanchez-Fueyo) and advancing our understanding of chronic allograft injury (Mark Stegall). The second day provided sessions on genetics, proteomics, epigenetics and microbiomics, and finally, molecular HLA typing and metabolomics. The complexities of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) to correlate individual single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) variations to chronic kidney transplant rejection were apparent and despite several thousand patient samples it is clear that GWAS will be valuable, but may not provide the level of genetic insight originally anticipated. Pharmacogenetics and exome-wide sequencing of patients with chronic rejection were considered. Exome sequencing provides single base detail for the protein coding sequences of the entire human genome in each individual—it was interesting to hear whole genome sequencing including the other 99% of the human genome whose function is not entirely clear. A fascinating paired discussion of the cutting edges of the Proteome field was held that involved either starting with peptides (bottom-up) or proteins (top-down) and in the end constructing complementary pictures of proteins and the critical modifications that determine functions. The Human Proteome Project was described as designed to determine the proteomics of every known human gene. Finally, a novel approach to quantitative proteomics using multi-parameter flow cytometry was described, allowing a whole new approach to clinical diagnostics for transplant rejection and immunosuppression monitoring. Dan Salomon described strategies developed to profile the immune-epigenomics of naïve and memory T cells at the level of methylating individual CpG sequences in gene promoter regions, while John Iacomini reviewed the master regulatory functions of small noncoding RNAs (microRNAs), emphasizing how epigenetics modifies the flow of information from the fixed sequences of genomic DNA, adding a complex layer of cell regulation. Microbiomics opened a discussion of the way microbes are synergistically associated with human beings and involved in health and disease beyond antibiotic associated diarrhea. Henry Erlich reviewed an entirely new layer of genetic complexity revealed by molecular HLA typing using deep DNA sequencing. Metabolomics of plasma and urine were presented as methods to develop diagnostic signatures for transplant rejection, tissue injury and function and the Human Metabolome Project was highlighted—the "GenBank of metabolomics." Bioinformatics approaches were elucidated for network mapping using Cytoscape and for making sense of DNA sequencing at the whole exome and whole genome levels. Latest advances in high resolution digital imaging of biopsy histology to create objective and quantitative metrics for transplant pathology showed how we may expect to read and interpret histology in the future. Allan Kirk described how the immune response evolves from childhood to old age and related this to the challenges of immune-senescence in transplantation. Dan Salomon proposed an integrated view of inflammation as a central driving mechanism of health and disease. We concluded by trying to understand the "value proposition" of diagnostic and predictive biomarkers for clinical transplantation—the next generation of clinical studies of biomarkers and drug therapies must integrate the new discipline of patient-centered, outcomes-based research before we may anticipate persuading anyone to pay. The 4th International Transplantomics Conference will be held in Cambridge, England in April 2013. Put it in your diary now! Change in our field will be driven by the evolution and application of new technologies—we are just at the beginning. 4th International Conference on Transplantomics and Biomarkers in Organ Transplantation Cambridge, UK | April 4-7, 2013 www.tts-transplantomics.org

Sharon Hunt, Stanford University Medical School; Lori West, ISHLT President; and Sandi See Tai, Pfizer A Women in Transplantation networking event was held in Prague on April 19, 2012 at the 32nd annual scientific meeting of the International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT). ISHLT President Dr. Lori West introduced invited speaker Dr. Sharon Hunt, Professor of Medicine at Stanford University Medical School and recipient of the 2012 ISHLT Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Hunt gave a presentation on her remarkable career, which covered an unparalleled period of advancement in heart transplantation at Stanford University. Especially interesting and enlightening were her reminiscences of women in medicine in the 1970s. She was a member of the first group of women admitted to medical training at Stanford University Medical School, and her talk included photographic evidence of her time there, mini-skirts and all! Dr. Hunt is widely known for her inspirational mentorship of clinical trainees, especially women, in heart failure and transplantation, so her address at the WIT event was particularly fitting. Over 70 attendees from all levels of training and career stages had the opportunity not only to listen to a moving talk from Dr. Hunt but also to develop and renew important networking contacts. As with previous events by the hugely successful WIT initiative, the atmosphere was friendly and relaxed, and provided an encouragingly welcoming atmosphere for young women and new members. We are again thankful to Pfizer for their continuing support of the WIT initiative. Berlin Congress WIT Events: Monday, July 16th Speaker: WIT Networking Event (lunch) • Noon-13:30 • ICC Berlin (Oslo Room) Elmi Muller Do You Treat Rottweilers or Poodles? Tuesday, July 17th Speakers: Sunrise Symposia • 07:00-08:15 • ICC Berlin (Hall 6) Regine Papp-Engels, Germany A perspective on Female Medical Professionals in the Developed World Delawir Kahn, South Africa Feminizaton in Medicine as a General Trend and the Implications for the Workplace Beatriz Dominguez-Gil, Spain Perspective of a Female Professional: Important Factors in Becoming a Female Professional Wednesday, July 18th Speakers: Concurrent Oral Presentations • 15:30-17:00 • ICC Berlin (Hall 6) Sabine Wohlke, Germany Gender Differences in Living Organ Recipients' Conceptions of the Body— Medical Anthropological and Ethical Perspectives Sven Pischke, Germany Outcome of Pregnancies after Liver or Kidney Transplantation Mitra Mahdavi-Mazdeh, Iran Share of Females in Nephrology of Iran Hagai Boaz, Israel The Gender Gap in Israeli Living Kidney Donations Maren Schulze, Germany Training Female Transplant Surgeons in Germany— Mandatory Changes Due to Gender Distribution of Medical Students— How Will the System Cope? Chi-Chua Yeh, Republic of China Female Transplant Surgeons in Taiwan Charlotte Hauser, Germany Outcome after Allogenic Kidney Transplantation Distributed by Gender of the Surgeon— A Retrospective Single Centre Analysis Heba Abdelrazik, Egypt The Egyptian Revolution and Its Impact on An Egyptian Female Doctor Living Abroad for Seven Years Sommer Gentry, USA Sommer Gentry, USA  

We are pleased to announce that the 12th International Xenotransplantation Association Congress (IXA 2013 Osaka) will be held on November 10-13, 2013 at the Osaka International Convention Center in Osaka, Japan. We have co-organized a special Clinical/Basic symposium on ABO incompatible/hyper-immune transplantation. This joint forum will be of special interest for transplant surgeons, physicians and scientists and will promote discussion of strategies for addressing antibody-mediated rejection and organ shortages: the two major obstacles in clinical transplantation. More specifically, the hot topics in the program will include: • How can we overcome immunoresponses associated with presensitization? • Update on preclinical organ and cell xenotransplantation • Are we ready for clinical islet xenotransplantation? • Advanced genetic engineering • Zoonosis In addition, we will also discuss potential uses of "Xeno" and "Regenerative" technologies to resolve the organ shortage. Osaka is the capital city of the western province of Japan, located an hour's drive from the traditional old cities of Kyoto & Nara. We look forward to meeting and welcoming the international delegates to this thriving urban city surrounded by beautiful historic sites.

The Council of the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (IPITA) continues to work hard to implement the various suggestions outlined at our Council retreat last summer. Our overall aim is to ensure that IPITA's activities include more than just the Biannual Congress, and that we truly represent the whole pancreas and islet transplant community worldwide. Membership numbers have increased over recent months, and we continue to look at new initiatives that ensure that IPITA membership offers real value for those who join. Our Congresses do remain a major priority, and Peter Stock is making excellent progress with preparations for the 2013 IPITA Congress, which is being held in Monterey, California from September 24-27, 2013 (for further information please visit www.ipita2013.org). We are pleased to announce that the 2015 Congress will be a joint meeting between IPITA, the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA), and the Cell Transplant Society (CTS). After consultation with the Councils and memberships of the three Sections, Melbourne, Australia has been selected as the venue for this landmark meeting. In the meantime, we look forward to catching up with IPITA members at the TTS Congress in Berlin, and always welcome constructive suggestions about new initiatives that can make our organization stronger. Please don't hesitate to contact IPITA President Paul Johnson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Cell Transplant Society members: It is an in-between year for us in the Cell Transplant Society (CTS)—we remember the great success of the 2011 meeting in Miami and look forward to seeing all of the CTS members at the 2013 meeting in Milan. We have not yet established the program for the Milan meeting, so suggestions are welcome. They can be sent to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or directly to Stephen Strom at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We hope to build on our history at CTS of timely and informative sessions at this meeting, so member input is not only welcome but expected. Thank you for supporting this year's TTS meeting in Berlin and see you all next year in Milan. Don't miss visiting Da Vinci's famous painting of the Last Supper at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie during your time in Milan—you should book well in advance. da Vinci’s The Last Supper

IHCTAS Calling It is a great pleasure to invite you to the XI Meeting of the International Hand and Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Society (IHCTAS) from August 29-31, 2013 in Wroclaw, Poland. Following the successful meeting in Atlanta, we would like to welcome you to the largest city in Poland, situated on the Odra River. Wroclaw has been known as a center for culture and academia for many centuries and was selected as a European Capital of Culture for 2016. During its more than one thousand years of history, Wroclaw has been part of either Poland, Bohemia, Austria, Prussia, or Germany, which has greatly influenced the varied architecture and culture of this capital of Lower Silesia. The XI Meeting is designed for physicians, surgeons, nurses, organ procurement specialists, scientists and trainees who are interested in Composite Tissue Allotransplantation (a.k.a. Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA)). The meeting will include plenary sessions, workshops and abstract presentations, providing an overview of current developments and new perspectives. The program is developed to encourage the exchange of novel scientific and clinical information and support the interchange of issues surrounding VCA. For more information, please visit our website at www.ihctas2013.pl We look forward to seeing you in Poland in 2013!

TID 6th International Conference Camille N. KottonChair The Transplant Infectious Disease (TID) section of The Transplantation Society (TTS) will hold its 6th International Transplant Infectious Disease Conference, in Berlin, Germany, on July 15, 2012, just before the start of the TTS meeting. We have an exciting array of speakers from all over the world, all experts in their field, discussing cutting-edge topics in transplant infectious disease. The meeting will be highly clinically based, with transplant clinicians attending from varied backgrounds. For those of you who must miss the meeting and who are TTS/TID members, many of the session recordings will be available online at www.tts.org following the event. In addition, the Transplant Infectious Disease section has been busy working on guidelines involving donors and tuberculosis risk, which should be published soon. We have also been working together with surgical colleagues to develop guidelines on the management of infectious disease issues in composite tissue transplantation (hand, face, limb). Based on the popularity of the initial international guidelines on CMV management, we are planning a second meeting to be held this fall. Anyone with additional ideas regarding projects for the Transplant Infectious Disease section is welcome to contact the president, Dr. Camille Kotton, directly at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. We warmly welcome all transplant clinicians who wish to become members of the Transplant Infectious Disease section. For further information on membership, please contact TID's representative at TTS, Alexandra Murphy, at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. / 514-874-1717. session recordings from the TID International Conferencewill be available for TTS/TID members at www.tts.org

The New ISODP Board and Council Deliberate on Strategic Plan and Events The ISODP's leadership continues to discuss implementation strategies for the association's strategic plan developed to focus and promote its aims and objectives. The main areas of engagement include: Increase donation internationally by establishing a process to engage in continuous improvement in donation and plan congresses and meetings to increase donation globally; Enhance available resources to improve donation practices by using shared information and creating meaningful associations; and, Establish an integrated network of donation professionals to align with other organizations and associations and enhance the ISODP membership. Günter Kirste and Kimberly Young deserve special recognition for formulating the strategic plan. In 2010, the ISODP and TTS, with the collaboration of Astellas, launched the Transplant Coordinators Scholarships in order to enhance international training opportunities. Several scholarships have been awarded and a second round of reviews are in the final stages and will be announced at the TTS Congress in Berlin. The Australian DonateLife Network and The Transplantation Society of Australia and New Zealand (TSANZ) look forward to hosting everyone in Sydney on November 21-24, 2013 for the 12th Congress of the International Society of Organ Donation and Procurement. ISODP wishes Dr. Jeremy Chapman and his team success in the planning and execution of this congress. 

Newsletter 2012 Volume 9 - Issue 1

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Peter Neuhaus Congress Chair Wolf O. Bechstein Congress Co-Chair THE PERFECT VENUE We have now entered the final stage of the preparation of the scientific and cultural program for the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society in Berlin, Germany this summer. Berlin is already well known as the capital of Germany with over 100,000 sociocultural events a year that attract roughly 9 million guests. Yet Berlin is also the European congress capital and the perfect venue for TTS’ upcoming congress. AT A GLANCE The Postgraduate Weekend on July 14-15, 2012 will precede the congress and has been organized by Stefan Tullius, Bernard Banas and Wolf O. Bechstein. The plenary session will open the weekend with a focus on equity in organ allocation. We are looking forward to an exciting discussion on the controversial topic of whether allocation criteria are really evidence-based or whether allocation should rather be outcome-oriented. Diverse concurrent workshops on Saturday will consider important clinical and immunological issues ranging from current concepts of chronic rejection to innate immunity. Sunday will focus on various aspects related to the topic: “How to make a career in transplantation and how to fund research in transplantation”. We believe that this topic will be of high interest, especially for young transplant surgeons, physicians and scientists. Finally, on Sunday, July 15, 2012 at 18:00, we will draw the curtain as the Congress Chair, Peter Neuhaus, and the Co-Chair for the German Transplant Society (DTG), Wolf O. Bechstein, will open the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society with a warm welcome to international delegates from over 60 countries around the globe. The opening ceremony will be musically accompanied by the Berlin Comedian Harmonists, who will bring back the vibrant atmosphere of the Golden Twenties. Afterwards, the Welcome Reception will provide a great opportunity for meeting old friends and making new ones. Harald zur Hausen2008 Nobel Prize Laureate in Physiology or Medicine From Monday, July 16th to Thursday, July 19th, a versatile and exciting scientific program spanning disciplines from clinical transplantation to basic science will be presented by a large number of worldwide-established experts. We will have 26 Sunrise Symposia and 37 State-of-the-Art Symposia. Furthermore, extraordinary highlights will be presented in six plenary sessions. We are very fortunate to enlist outstanding international experts such as Peter Friend, who will speak on “Organ Scarcity: How Can We Meet Increasing Demands?” and Angus W. Thomson, who will introduce the work of the 2011 Nobel Prize Laureate Ralph Steinman. To highlight the “Progress and Challenges in Transplantation Surgery,” selected pioneers will present their insights on Thursday, July 19th. Hans Sollinger will focus on kidney and pancreas, Bruce A. Reitz on heart and lung, and Ron Busuttil on liver and intestine. The President’s Plenary on Wednesday, July 18th features the 2008 Nobel Prize Laureate Harald zur Hausen, with an outstanding presentation on oncogenic viruses. Gerhard Opelz will give his presidential address prior to honouring the awardees of the Young Investigator Awards, Recognition Awards, TTS-Asturias Award for International Cooperation as well as the Medawar Prize. A special homage will also be paid to Leslie Baruch Brent. The state-of-the-art sessions will give a comprehensive overview of contemporary transplantation medicine covering a wide range of topics from clinical issues such as intestinal or composite tissue transplantation to basic science topics like innate immunity or the role of microRNAs. Early risers will be rewarded with valuable Concurrent Sunrise Symposia. They will address important subjects from “New Targets for Immunomodulation” to different aspects of tolerance induction. Furthermore, ethical issues such as transplant tourism as well as innovations in intestinal and multivisceral transplantation will be discussed. More than 2,000 submitted abstracts prepare the ground for approximately 50 concurrent oral sessions, 40 mini oral sessions and an extensive poster exhibition. All accepted posters will be printed on-site and displayed in traditional printed format. In addition, convenient poster lounges will provide electronic poster displays to promote a scientific exchange in a communicative atmosphere. The mini oral sessions will build bridges between conventional poster presentation and full oral presentations. In addition to the scientific program, delegates will experience an exciting city with a wide range of cultural opportunities. As a gateway to Eastern Europe, the city offers almost innumerable cultural sights and a multitude of museums and theatres. To top everything off, after an exciting and interesting day at the congress, Berlin’s bars and nightclubs invite you to a relaxing evening. In case you have not submitted your abstract yet, there is an opportunity to do so during the Late Breaking Abstract Submission period from April 15 to May 7, 2012. To stay up-to-date with information please visit our website at www.transplantation2012.org and join our mailing list or follow us on Twitter @TTS2012. On behalf of The Transplantation Society and the Deutsche Transplantationsgesellschaft, we are delighted to welcome you to our colourful and cosmopolitan city and to the 24th International Congress!

Gerhard OpelzPresident The 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society in Berlin is coming closer by giant steps! July 15-19, 2012 are the dates to be marked in your calendar. As TTS President, I have the honour of officially opening the Congress at the Opening Ceremony and welcoming you all to Berlin. To date, well over 2,000 abstracts have already been received for review—with late breaking abstracts still to come. I look forward to meeting everyone at the 2012 Congress. The Organizing Committee is doing an outstanding job and nearly all of the invited plenary speakers have already accepted—the list is impressive. For the next phase of congress preparation, over 200 experts in various subspecialties of transplantation have been enlisted to review and grade the abstracts in order to achieve the highest level of expertise and fairness. I am grateful to the many TTS members who have volunteered to serve as reviewers. Expert reviewing is a time consuming but necessary task, essential for composing an up-to-date and well-balanced congress program. On-line congress registration is now possible at: transplantation2012.org/registration.php. Members will be pleased to see that all TTS members in good standing enjoy a substantial reduction in registration fees for the Berlin Congress. Considering the reduced fees they also enjoy when attending the TTS section congresses and meetings, TTS membership is not only professionally but also financially rewarding. Those who are already established members are encouraged to ensure that the junior members in their departments are aware of the many benefits of membership. TTS would be proud to have them join us in representing the transplant field worldwide. The year 2012 is an exciting year for TTS and its membership. Please join us at this year´s scientific and social highlight, the Berlin Congress on July 15-19, 2012.

Henrik Ekberg Don’t miss any of TTS’ upcoming meetings, activities and initiatives in 2012 and 2013! There are a great number of TTS activities going on at this time. I would like to take this opportunity to highlight some of them for you. New Initiatives From the Education Committee The TTS Education Committee (chaired by Marcelo Cantarovich and Elmi Muller) has been active recently with new ventures to increase members’ knowledge, find ways to share expertise, and increase impact in schools. Monthly webinars continue to be organized on a variety of topics in the field of transplantation. You are invited to join us for the live presentation and discussion, or to view the recording at your leisure on www.tts.org. Try them out any time you have a spare moment to devote to your continued medical education. We applaud the Education Committee’s most recent venture—a bi-weekly email update called “Do You Know?” that features commentaries on scientific articles of top interest, as well as announcements of upcoming webinars and other educational resources. Members are welcome to suggest articles and give comments. Read more about the Education Committee’s initiatives on page six of this newsletter. Successful 2011 Section Meetings At the end of 2011, several TTS sections had meetings that were all successful and very well attended. In April, the International Hand and Composite Tissue Allotransplantation Society met in Atlanta. In June, the TTS Basic Science Committee held a joint symposium with ESOT in Cape Cod. In early September, the Transplant Infectious Disease section met in Glasgow and, in mid-September, the Intestinal Transplant Association members attended the XII International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium in Washington. In October, the Cell Transplant Society and the International Xenotransplantation Association held a Joint International Congress in Miami, and in November the 11th International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement Congress attracted members and guests from all over the globe to Buenos Aires. These and the rest of TTS’ sections are already making plans for their next meetings, which will take place in 2013. Visit our website at www.tts.org for further information on all our meetings. Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG) Meeting in Buenos Aires Since 2008, the DICG, co-chaired by Jeremy Chapman (TTS) and Adeera Levin (ISN), continues to promote and implement the Declaration of Istanbul. You can read more about their successful meeting in Buenos Aires in November 2011 on page nine of this newsletter, as well as follow ongoing updates, events and reports on their website, www.declarationofistanbul.org, edited by Gabriel Danovitch. Future efforts include an annual meeting, to take place alternate years at the TTS or ISN congress. This year’s meeting will be in Berlin in July at the TTS International Congress. Highlights of 2012 For 2012, the highlight of the year is obviously the TTS International Congress in Berlin, but TTS will organize and support other meetings this year as well—the 3rd International Conference on Transplantomics and Biomarkers in Organ Transplantation in La Jolla, California that was held in March (chaired by Daniel R. Salomon), an Antibody Consensus Conference on solid phase antibody assays in Rome in May (chaired by Gerhard Opelz), the 6th International Transplant Infectious Disease Conference (chaired by Camille Kotton and co-chaired by Kaiser Laurent and Clarisse Martins Machado) to be held on July 15th in Berlin, and a CMV Consensus Meeting in September (co-chaired by Camille Kotton and Atul Humar) to update the current guidelines. CTS Organ Transplant Registry Update In the most recent issue of Tribune, we announced a new partnership between TTS and the Collaborative Transplant Study (CTS) organ transplant registry. Many transplant centres around the world do not have access to necessary software for documentation and analysis of their patient outcomes after transplantation. As a result of this partnership, all TTS members are offered a CTS software package specifically developed for transplant documentation and analysis at individual transplant centres. Many members have already contacted us, and we are currently working on finding suitable solutions for their needs. We are also grateful to those who have offered to provide data from their existing transplant databases to the international scientific registry. Specific information on how to contribute to the registry or obtain this software can be acquired by contacting the TTS Director of Headquarter Services at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Alexandra Murphy, Membership Services Coordinator With over 5,000 TTS members and 1,000 section members, the Membership Services Coordinator plays a vital role in ensuring ongoing satisfaction with TTS services. Alexandra Murphy, our new Membership Services Coordinator since last August, has been working diligently with our technology group to improve processes to better serve our members. The sheer number of members, along with their geographic diversity and presence in multiple time zones, makes satisfying their need for information in a timely fashion a formidable task. While some members may only connect with Alexandra once a year when the annual invoices are sent, there are many other services she provides that you should be familiar with. Alexandra’s relationship with members starts right from the day an individual applies for membership. It is her responsibility to guide the person’s application through the process of approval by the TTS Membership Committee, the different Section Presidents and of course, the TTS Councilors and Officers. Always on the lookout to improve procedures, she monitors the approval process and strives to reduce delay so the applicant can benefit from their association with TTS as soon as possible after applying. TTS membership brings many benefits, not the least of which is access to a wealth of information on www.tts.org. Through the “Members Only” section of the website, you can update your contact info, access the membership directory, listen to webinars, watch multimedia presentations and much more. As the Membership Services Coordinator, Alexandra can help you derive the most from your online experience by pointing you in the right direction to find what you’re looking for. Through the “Members Only” section of the website, you can update your contact info, access the membership directory, listen to webinars, watch multimedia presentations and much more. One of Alexandra’s goals is to help grow membership exponentially in both the Society and in the Sections. As our membership becomes stronger and more diverse, more opportunities for teaching, learning and collaboration develop among our network of experts. One of the great advantages of being an international society is that TTS operates not only at the local or national levels but at the global level, where novel approaches and new research findings are more likely to emerge and initiatives in the field of transplantation can have a worldwide impact. In addition to personal associations, TTS membership also provides you with structured opportunities for professional development. Getting involved in TTS activities such as webinars, committees and meetings means that you can learn from and collaborate with an international community of professionals who are experts in their fields. Many of these activities use technology to help bridge the geographical gaps between members and make connections possible via online platforms. These educational opportunities are not to be missed! Finally, as a TTS member, you can take advantage of additional membership perks such as discounted rates for journal subscriptions, reduced congress registration fees, and eligibility for travel awards. Log into your TTS account and have a look at what is available to you. These savings are offered with you in mind! Alexandra is always available to answer your questions and discuss your concerns. She can be reached directly at TTS International Headquarters via email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or phone: 514-874-1717. Or when you come to the 2012 Congress in Berlin this summer, drop by the TTS booth and introduce yourself. Alexandra will be happy to assist you with whatever membership information you may require.

Do You Know? The Education Committee is very enthusiastic about our new educational activity called “Do You Know?”. The aim of this project is to broaden our members’ general knowledge by supplying a short summary of an article recently published in a peer reviewed journal. The commentary is published via email on a bi-weekly basis, and provides an easy read to the member, with the option of linking to the full article or any of the references on PubMed. TTS Webinars Webinars, a now very familiar and long-standing teaching tool, continue to attract many of our members. Each webinar features a 20-30 minute slide presentation followed by a question and answer discussion period. In the last year, several TTS members from different regions have been invited to chair webinars on a variety of topics, including: Transplant Infectious Disease (Jay Fishman, USA), Medication Adherence (Bethany Foster, Canada), HLA-Antibodies (Denis Glotz, France), and Non-invasive Biomarkers (Peter Nickerson, Canada). The online discussion format provides a lively and interactive space for participants. The webinars are also available as podcasts for members who were unable to participate in the live discussion. Online Patient Materials The members of TTS Education Committee reviewed the currently available web-based information material addressed to patients. A selection of the most important websites has been selected and posted on TTS webpage. EODTS Working Group and Forum The Working Group on Education on Organ Donation and Transplantation for Schools (EODTS) has been created to bring together people from around the world who are involved with the education of school children in the field of organ donation and transplantation. This working group is open to all TTS members and non-members and its goal is to expand knowledge about organ donation and transplantation at school level worldwide. A 2nd EODTS Forum meeting will take place in Berlin on July 15, 2012, for members of the working group. Please visit the TTS webpage (www.tts.org) for more information. Needs Assessment/ Gap Analysis Survey A Needs Assessment/Gap Analysis survey is available for completion on TTS webpage at www.tts.org/educationsurvey. We encourage TTS members to complete the survey. This will help the TTS Education Committee address more educational needs in the future.

Discoveries in the basic sciences have been critical in moving the clinical practice of organ transplantation forward. Both clinicians/scientists and full-time basic researchers contribute in bringing transplantation to a new level. In the past two years, the Basic Science Committee, chaired by Anita Chong, University of Chicago and Stefan G. Tullius, Harvard Medical School, has focused on supporting young researchers and the relationship between mentor and mentee. At the 2012 Berlin Congress, TTS will present up to a total of 34 International Basic Science Mentee-Mentor Awards. TTS is extremely proud that 29 of these awards are in partnership with 8 societies: Australian/New Zealand (TSANZ), British (BTS), Canadian (CST), European (ESOT), French (SFT), German (DTG), and Japanese (JTS) transplantation societies. A total of 5 Mentee-Mentor Awards for applications from emerging economies will be supported solely by TTS. The Basic Science Committee recently received applications for a brand-new TTS International Basic Science Research Exchange Fellowship program (application submission closed on April 1st). Two series of five research fellowships will support established investigators and trainees, respectively, to travel from their host institutions to another laboratory for 3, 6 or 12 months to develop new research collaborations/directions or technologies. Award winners will be announced at the 2012 Berlin Congress in July. The Berlin Congress has a lot to offer—the Mentee-Mentor and Research awards are only a few of the attractions designed specifically for basic scientists. Awards will be presented at the networking event hosted by the TTS Basic Science Committee and co-sponsored by the German Transplantation Society. Please be on the lookout for details and plan to come to congratulate winners, meet up with old friends and colleagues and make new ones. We are looking forward to seeing you in Berlin!

The Women in Transplantation (WIT) group is proud to share with our members our upcoming events for 2012. Over the last few years, many women have had the opportunity to attend one of our WIT networking events, which are linked to international congresses in the field of transplantation. These events give professional women the opportunity to get to know each other better and have been the start of many new friendships. The next networking event will take place in Berlin on July 16, 2012 and features a lunch and a talk by Dr. Elmi Muller from South Africa. She will ask the question: “Do you treat Rottweilers or Poodles?” to inspire her audience to reflect on women’s roles in medicine and transplantation and how we are different from our male colleagues. The next morning, conversation will continue in this field with speakers Prof. Regine Rapp-Engels from Germany, Dr. Beatriz Dominguez-Gil from Spain and Prof. Del Kahn from South Africa at an early morning symposium. Feminization in medicine as a general trend and the implications for the workplace will be discussed—we hope to see some of our male colleagues at this session as well. The WIT group is one of the fastest growing groups in TTS and it attracts more and more people every year. Our recently started mentorship programme will also provide some opportunities to younger clinicians and scientists to obtain input into their careers and the choices they make. We hope to include abstracts from mentors and mentees at TTS’ International Congress in Berlin in July as well.

DICG members met in Buenos Aires to discuss DOI progress and future plans. The Declaration of Istanbul (DOI) has been adopted and endorsed all over the world—more than 110 organisations have examined the declaration and decided that it meets their needs to assist in the appropriate protection of living donors and the enhancement of transplantation activity. To ensure that the DOI principles become realities in practice, the DOI is supported by working groups of committed individuals, organized under the umbrella of the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (DICG). In practical terms, the working groups oversee a series of important activities that uphold the DOI principles. This means that referees consider the principles of the DOI in their assessment of papers submitted to journals on a transplantation subject, grant funding agencies consider the origin of organs when assessing for funding, pharmaceutical companies ensure that the clinical research programs they contract or support do not abuse the living donors, institutional review boards have guidelines to which they may turn when considering a specialist transplantation protocol, and organizers of meetings ensure that all presenters uphold the principles of DOI. These activities do not happen in these various environments automatically, or simply, or quickly. There is much work to be done to sustain the efforts: the Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group is putting in the effort. The DICG met in November 2011 in Buenos Aires, just before the International Society of Organ Donation and Procurement congress. The group discussed the progress of the DOI over the past year and concentrated on each of the working groups’ plans for the next year. As examples of planned activities, we are hoping to encourage more journal editors to take up the DOI overtly in their author instructions and advice to referees. This would help to establish more regular reporting of activities that support the DOI by national organizations, and to develop methods by which to overtly document the outcomes of both best and poor practices in different regions. Working with the infrastructures of The Transplantation Society (TTS) and the International Society of Nephrology (ISN), the DICG continues its work to improve global practices in transplantation. Ultimately, our intention is to provide a handbook of the DOI for people in different environments and different professions so that those formal groups or societies that have endorsed the DOI can have a simple guide and set of tools to help them implement specific activities. Through sharing what others have implemented successfully, we hope to impact practices in a sustainable way. Watch this space for further news of our progress.

The Transplant Infectious Disease section had an exciting meeting in Glasgow, Scotland in September, with world-class speakers and excellent updates in the field. These lectures can be viewed by TID and TTS members online for free at www.tid2011.org. We will have another similar meeting on Sunday, July 15, 2012 in Berlin, just before the start of the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society. All TTS members are encouraged to attend this stimulating and clinically relevant meeting. Our section has undertaken an initiative for infectious disease guidelines for composite tissue transplantation. In addition, we will be updating the widely used international guidelines regarding cytomegalovirus management after organ transplantation, initially published by our group in 2010. We would warmly welcome new members, especially those with fresh ideas regarding transplant infectious disease issues.

The Intestinal Transplant Association (ITA) has been an official section of TTS for nearly a decade. It was created in 2003 at the VIII International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium in Miami, Florida, reflecting the joint vision that the late Professor Richard Wood (England) and Kareem Abu-Elmagd (USA) shared in 1999 at the VI Symposium in Omaha, Nebraska. The association was established as a formalized and unified group of professionals with a common interest in gut failure, rehabilitation, and transplantation. Since the first meeting held in London in 1989, there have been twelve biannual International Small Bowel Transplant Symposia, alternating locations between Europe and United States. The most recent successful reunion in Washington, DC in September 2011 was a testimony of the association’s vital role in the field of clinical and academic evolution. The meeting witnessed advances in mucosal immunology, tissue engineering, gut rehabilitation, and visceral transplantation. Awards were given to young investigators with outstanding experimental and clinical work. With the establishment of global leadership in gastrointestinal rehabilitation and transplantation, the association’s mission is to continue to save and enhance the lives of gut failure patients with novel medical and innovative surgical management, including reconstructive and transplant surgery. ITA’s current goals are to further enhance communication and organizational effectiveness, create a community of practice, facilitate research, and increase membership. Our next meeting, the 13th International Small Bowel Transplant Symposium chaired by Prof. Peter Friend, will be held in Oxford, UK in June 2013. Stay tuned for more information coming soon.

In Cell Transplantation Society news, the national Phenylketonuria Alliance just issued a bulletin to all of its members, and is posting on its website a message announcing that at the University of Pittsburgh, a clinical trial of hepatocyte transplantation to treat PKU in adult patients has become active and patients are being recruited for consideration. Writing on behalf of its members, Christine Brown, Executive Director of the National PKU Alliance, issued this statement: The National PKU Alliance commends the researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center on the opening of their clinical trial of hepatocyte liver cell transplantation for the treatment of PKU adults. The NPKUA supports hepatocyte transplantation research in PKU mice through the funding of two University of Pittsburgh fellows, Dr. Kristen Skvorak-Vallieu and Dr. Roberto Gramignoli. Encouraging results have been found with hepatocyte transplantation when used in PKU mice and in other inborn errors of metabolism diseases. This will be the first time hepatocyte transplantation will be used in PKU adults. The NPKUA is excited about the advances the new clinical trial will bring. To learn more about the hepatocyte transplantation clinical trial, please visit the National Institute of Health clinical trial website. The latest information on hepatocyte liver cell transplantation will be presented at our 2012 National Conference held July 26-29, 2012 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Cherry Hill, NJ. Please watch for upcoming announcements about registration, as you will not want to miss learning the latest on this amazing research. We hope you join us in Making PKU History!

The ISODP 2011 Congress was an excellent opportunity to discuss ideas and exchange knowledge. The ISODP Congress in Buenos Aires in November 2011 was a big success—949 professionals participated, with more than 74% from Argentina and South America. The congress offered an opportunity for extensive exchange of knowledge against an excellent scientific background spanning the entire fields of organ donation, organ procurement and donor management. Of course, it gave the opportunity for a lot of discussion among specialists to learn from each other and compare their methods. Dr. Carlos Soratti and his colleagues are congratulated for their work and organisation that made this event possible, especially in a time of tight financial resources. During the conference, the ISODP members decided that the next meetings will take place in Sydney, Australia in 2013 and in Seoul, Korea in 2015. Today, further development of organ donation is considered an absolute requirement. In the field of transplantation, better distribution of knowledge on how to detect donors in donor management, improvements in family approach and family care, and an increased number of investigations are all greatly needed. At the recent congress, new techniques for organ preservation, including cold or warm machine perfusion were discussed, together with aspects of safety and measures in the whole field of organ and tissue donation. Interest in this field is rapidly increasing due to the worldwide spread of as yet unknown infectious and other diseases. Future challenges include both providing enough high-quality organs as well as performing further investigations concerning safety issues. Participants of the Buenos Aires meeting took home state-of-the-art knowledge in this field. Altogether, the meeting was impressive and a great success.

The Council of the International Xenotransplantation Association (IXA) greatly appreciates the leadership of its Immediate Past President, Dr. Emanuele Cozzi, and the important contributions of Dr. David Sachs, Dr. Pierre Gianello, and Dr. Takaaki Kobayashi, who served as Councilors through 2011. Dr. Bernhard Hering, President, and Dr. Peter Cowan, Secretary and Treasurer, will work with Dr. Takaaki Kobayashi, President-Elect; Dr. Emanuele Cozzi, Immediate Past President; and Council members (Drs. Agnes Azimzadeh, Gina Rayat, Gilles Blancho, Leo Buhler, Chung-Gyu Park, and Kazahiko Yamada) to advance i) planning for the 2013 IXA meeting in Osaka, Japan, ii) communications, iii) education, iv) membership, and v) regulatory matters pertinent to xenotransplantation. Dr. Richard Pierson III, Past President of IXA, has been appointed Chair of the Ethics Committee of IXA and ex-officio non-voting member of the IXA Council; he will replace Dr. Anthony d’Apice. The IXA Council acknowledges the important contributions of Dr. d’Apice. IXA and the journal Xenotransplantation have jointly established a new annual Xeno Prize to be awarded, beginning in 2012, to the author of the best original paper published in the relevant year in Xenotransplantation. The Xeno Prize Committee will select the awardee from a list of candidates recommended by the journal’s Associate Editors. Dr. Leo H. Buhler has been named the new Editor-in Chief of Xenotransplantation, the official journal of IXA. He took over from Dr. Carl-Gustav Groth, who edited Xenotransplantation from 2008 to 2011. The IXA council is profoundly grateful for Dr. Groth’s exemplary leadership and achievements. IXA would like to refer readers to its website at www.tts.org/ixa for further updates.

Newsletter 2012 Volume 9 - Issue 3

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TTS has developed a new relationship with Transplantation This new relationship now enables Online and iPad access to Transplantation for all TTS members (dues paid up to date) and access to the ETOC (electronic table of contents) of each Transplantation issue. A print subscription will still be available for all TTS members at a much-reduced cost. TTS wishes to encourage members to access Transplantation as its official Journal. A metric of Journal performance to the future will not only be the impact factor by published citations but also by reader access. Wolter’s Kluwer/Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, the publisher of Transplantation has also agreed to publish of TTS biennial meeting abstracts and those of TTS Section conferences held in their biennial years, all in fully searchable format in the Journal. The Editors of Transplantation have been most supportive of these developments and have cooperatively enabled TTS to call for the appointment of Regional Associate Editors throughout TTS Regions of the world that include Asia, Africa/Middle East, Europe, Latin America, North America and Oceania. These developments highlight the value of being a TTS member. Other benefits include free access to educational materials on the TTS website, reduced registration fees at TTS symposia congresses and meetings, access to TTS Newsletter Tribune that updates members regarding global events and Section meetings, and access to grants, awards and fellowships. The reduced registration fee for the 2014 World Transplant Congress in San Francisco will be substantial for TTS members. Meanwhile, TTS has an invigorated relationship with its Journal's publisher and an enhanced collaboration with the Transplantation editors that we are now confident will lead to further improvements to the Journal.

Presence (Globally)             Engagement                    Partnership Francis L. Delmonico,TTS President I write to all TTS members at this exciting time of strategic planning following the Berlin Congress—that will engage TTS in projects of organ donation and transplantation throughout the world. Indeed, the focus of the strategic plan for 2012–2014 is to fulfill the mission of TTS in having global presence, engagement and partnership. These three words, presence and engagement and partnership, will be the cornerstones of TTS activity for the next two years. TTS wishes to exercise a vital role in the development of transplantation through expansion of deceased organ donation and with the proper oversight of living donor transplantation, consistent with WHO and Declaration of Istanbul principles. A 5th anniversary of the Declaration of Istanbul is currently planned for April 2013 in Doha, Qatar. TTS intends to work closely with National Ministries of Health in securing resources for the development of deceased organ donation, especially in those locations of the world in which no such program exists. TTS will work with the WHO in an ongoing project of vigilance and surveillance—the “Project Notify”, intended to assemble a comprehensive database of information regarding the transmission of infectious disease and malignancy from organ donors. We plan to expand membership in the Society, which has increased from 2000 in 2006 to more than 5000 in 2012. The approach of national (country) society affiliation will be continued. Currently, there are more than 1000 members from developing countries and TTS mission of providing information throughout the world will now be best accomplished through our official Journal Transplantation being distributed to all TTS members electronically with each issue. Under the leadership of our Education Committee, a Transplantation Society Academy will be developed for those interested in education and prospering their careers by learning how to teach. More will follow soon on this development by electronic notice to all TTS members. TTS is eager to facilitate professional relationships between the other major stakeholders in transplantation; and thus, a liaison is being developed with ISHLT, ILTS, IPTA and ISN. Again, the three words of the strategic plan for the next 2 years are encapsulated by presence (globally), engagement and partnership as the modus operandi for TTS as we go forward together. It is indeed an honor and privilege to serve as TTS President at this time.

David E.R. Sutherland | 2012 Recipient The Transplantation Society is fortunate to have a great wealth of scientific talent among its membership. This year, the Medawar Prize Committee received nominations for many highly qualified individuals who have greatly contributed to the field of transplantation. After much deliberation, we are delighted to announce the result of the selection process and introduce to you the 2012 Medawar Prize recipient, David E.R. Sutherland. The Medawar Prize is funded from a generous endowment provided by Novartis Pharma AG to The Transplantation Society (TTS) and honors Sir Peter Medawar who has often been called “the founding father of transplant immunology”. Dr. Sutherland founded and has been the Director of the University of Minnesota Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation since 1994, and is holder of the Dobbs Diabetes Research Chair. As a transplant surgeon, Dr. Sutherland has trained numerous surgeons heading organ and pancreatic transplant programs worldwide and has overseen more than 2,000 pancreas transplants at the UM. He performed the world’s first clinical islet transplant in 1974 alongside his mentor Dr. John Najarian, and he developed minimally invasive beta cell replacement therapy as an alternative to insulin therapy on pancreas transplantation to treat diabetes. He also initiated preservation of beta cell mass by islet auto-transplantation at the time of total pancreatectomy for chronic pancreatitis in 1977, with nearly 435 such procedures completed to date. In 1980, Dr. Sutherland founded the International Pancreas Transplant Registry. Dr. Sutherland has been of service for national and international organizations and societies, including serving as President of The Transplantation Society (2002-2004), the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Association (1996-1997), the Cell Transplant Society (1994-1996), and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons (1990-1991). He has also served on the editorial boards of many journals, including Cell Transplantation, Diabetes, Transplantation, Transplantation Proceedings, and Pancreas. He has been Editor-in-Chief for Clinical Transplantation since January 2007. Dr. Sutherland’s principle scientific achievement is his role as the major force in the development of beta-cell-replacement (BCR) for the treatment of diabetes. In the early 1970s, he began work on islet transplantation to make BCR minimally invasive. He recognized the long-term challenges, and simultaneously refined techniques of pancreas transplantation to avoid problems that plagued earlier series. In the late 1970s, he resurrected clinical pancreas transplantation at the University of Minnesota, while persevering with islet research. In 1977, Dr. Sutherland showed that islet autografts could preserve insulin-secretion after total-pancreatectomy for chronic pancreatitis, establishing a new treatment for the disease, now proved metabolically durable. The first successful series of single-donor islet allografts occurred under his direction. In 1980, he established the International Pancreas and Islet Transplant Registry, one of the most useful registries ever, publishing outcome analyses for nearly 30 years. The unique contributions that Dr. Sutherland has made to pancreas transplantation include the first living-donor segmental-graft (1979), aiming not simply to solve organ shortage but to decrease the rejection rate in the pre-calcineurin-inhibitor era. He also first described isletitis with selective beta-cell destruction and recurrence of diabetes in pancreas isografts (identical-twin donors) and allografts (1984), a linchpin in establishing the disease as autoimmune. Finally, more than anyone in the field, he emphasized pancreas-transplant-alone (PTA) in nonuremic patients whose diabetes was more severe than the side-effects of immunosuppression, comprising a quarter of the first 1,000 cases at the UM, a series now greater than 2,000. The field would not have developed as it did without Dr. Sutherland’s passion and numerous contributions The Medawar Prize is funded from a generous endowment provided by Novartis Pharma AG to The Transplantation Society (TTS). The prize honours Sir Peter Medawar, who has been called “the founding father of transplant immunology.”

It was only fitting for TTS to pay special homage to Leslie Baruch Brent in Berlin–the city that marks his escape from the Holocaust at the young age of 13. Prof. Brent is a Past TTS President and Medawar Prize Recipient. During his acceptance speech, Prof. Brent remarked at how proud Peter Medawar and Rupert Billingham would be, knowing that tolerance remains a very much discussed topic and that the “Holy Grail” of induction of tolerance in solid organ recipients appears on the horizon. He also thanked Ray Owen, the grandfather of tolerance and presented Prof. Opelz with the plates from his original PhD thesis for the TTS historical library. To learn more about Prof. Brent, pick up a copy of his autobiography entitled Sunday’s Child.

Changes at IHQ Montreal: Growth and Reorganization — to Better Serve Henrik Ekberg, Director of Medical Affairs The Transplantation Society is once again increasing its capacity at the International Headquarters (IHQ) in Montreal to better serve its constituencies (TTS Membership, the seven TTS Sections and the fifteen Affiliated Societies). We have been developing more efficient tools and methods for communication with the TTS membership. We currently provide communication and information through e-Blasts, the Tribune (newsletter), the TTS and Section websites, the Declaration of Istanbul website and live webinars, and through the dissemination of membership and meeting brochures or leaflets. More recently we have deployed a “smart” device-friendly version of the tts.org website and the ability to view and download meeting presentations directly on your phone or tablet. Over the past few years, TTS has been developing its meetings organization capabilities to enable greater efficiency and independence from external meetings organizers. This has coincided with rapid increase in the number of meetings undertaken by TTS itself and also on behalf of its Sections. Furthermore, the need for enhanced education and collaboration has necessitated more face-to-face meetings, often with a more specialized focus: for example, Consensus meetings on antibodies and on CMV, and Symposia on Development of Deceased Donation in South-East Europe and in South Africa. From the IHQ perspective, this means greater involvement from the staff. Our vision is that we can best be served by a staff fully dedicated to the success of TTS, its Sections, and Affiliated Societies. To help accomplish this, we are improving the organizational structure of IHQ as well as increasing the capacity by adding more staff. With the specialization of our Sections, we have also seen an increased need to provide coordinated services between both the TTS Sections’ Councils and the Section Meetings’ organizing committees. Our new structure includes a staff member who will be dedicated to our Sections, ensuring a fully coordinated approach with the meetings staff. Finally, the TTS finances have grown increasingly complex requiring both enhanced capacity and oversight. A full-time controller, who will report directly to the TTS President and Executives through the Treasurers, will now head the finances group at IHQ. The position of Director of Medical Affairs (DMA) will not be renewed as of 2013; the duties of the DMA thereafter to be performed by the Executive Director, the Treasurers, other TTS Officers and members of TTS Council. We are currently in the process of recruiting new staff members needed under this structure and will report back to you in the next issue of Tribune. We are very excited about this new organizational structure as it will permit us to better fulfill our mandate and enhance our ability to serve our constituencies.

We are pleased to announce the following recent additions to the International Headquarters team of TTS: Geneviève Leclerc has jointed TTS as its Director of Meetings. Geneviève brings more than 20 years of experience in congress management. As Director of Meetings, Geneviève is responsible for all meetings organized by TTS, both for the Society and its Sections. She is also responsible for managing and developing the meetings staff. Geneviève is fluently bilingual (English and French), and has earned the designation of CMP (Certified Meeting Planner). Maria Mavros has joined TTS as its Controller. Over the last decade or so, Maria has worked for one of the big four accounting firms as well as a large multinational. She brings over 5 years of internal and external audit experience in a variety of industries: service, financial, nonprofit and manufacturing. Maria is fluently bilingual (English and French), and is a CPA, CA (Chartered Professional Accountant). Laura Aliaga has joined TTS as Administration/Registration Coordinator. Laura has nine years of experience in administration, both in the corporate and academic fields. She has spent the last five years in administration coordinator roles in the medical research departments of two of Montreal’s key medical research facilities. Laura is trilingual (English, French and Spanish) and was an Advertising Major in university. Kathy Tsandilas has joined TTS as Meetings Manager. Kathy has many years of experience organizing meetings and congresses around the world. Most recently, she has managed all aspects of large congresses in Europe and Latin America for another medical society as well as lead a team to develop, restructure, standardize and implement procedures to conform to the organization’s vision. All of Kathy’s education and training has revolved around organizing meetings and congresses. Kathy speaks English, French, Spanish and Greek.

The 2012 TTS Recognition Awards were presented at the 24th International Congress of The Transplantation Society in July to individuals who have made a major international impact in the field of transplantation TTS • ASTURIAS AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION Luc Noël, France Luc Noël received his medical degree from the University of Grenoble and specialized in clinical biology, haematology and blood transfusion in Lyon and Paris. As a consultant, he contributed to the reorganization of the French Transfusion Service, culminating in a single national blood transfusion organization, the Etablissement français du sang. In particular, he contributed to setting up the system of vigilance and surveillance of adverse reactions known as haemovigilance and to optimizing the clinical use of blood components. In 1999, he was appointed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as Coordinator of Blood Transfusion Safety. In 2004, he led the Clinical Procedures (CPR) unit, responsible "for ensuring efficacy, safety and equity in the provision of clinical procedures in surgery, anaesthetics, obstetrics and orthopaedics, particularly at the district hospital level". The CPR unit is also "in charge of promoting the appropriate effective and safe use of cell, tissue and organ transplantation, including surveillance of risks, in particular in xenotransplantation trials.” A global meeting organized in Madrid in November 2003 led to Resolution WHA57.18 of the 57th World Health Assembly (WHA) in May 2004 that revived the topic of transplantation at the WHO. In the last 5 years, the WHO, with the help of Member States and civil society, including the scientific and professional community, has worked at raising awareness of access, safety and ethical issues in cell, tissue and organ transplantation. TTS • GENZYME AWARD FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN TRANSPLANTATION Gabriel Danovitch, USA Gabriel Danovitch is recognized as one of the foremost educators in clinical organ transplantation—at his own institution at UCLA, in the US and internationally. Dr. Danovitch received his medical degree from St Bartholomew’s Hospital of the University of London; he completed his residency training in London and in Bersheeba, Israel and his nephrology fellowship training at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City. He served on the faculty at Albert Einstein and then directed the nephrology unit at Soroka Hospital in Israel. He is currently Professor of Medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA (Distinguished Professor as of July 2012) and is the longtime Medical Director of its renowned Kidney and Pancreas Transplant Program. Dr. Danovitch has devoted his recent career to various aspects of clinical kidney transplantation. He has published over 180 original articles and 50 book chapters. He has mentored a generation of transplant physicians and leads on of the longest functioning kidney transplant medicine fellowships in the US. Dr. Danovitch is an internationally recognized authority on transplant immunosuppression, clinical transplant care, transplant ethics and public policy. He has served on the board of the American Society of Transplantation and the United Network for Organ Donation (UNOS) and is the current Chair of its International Relations committee. He is a founder member of the Custodian Group of Declaration of Istanbul on Organ Trafficking and Transplant Tourism. He is a Medical Director of OneLegacy, the organ procurement agency of Southern California. His classic textbook, the “Handbook of Kidney Transplantation”, now in its fifth edition and translated into four languages, has become required reading for those entering the field. TTS • GENZYME AWARD FOR INNOVATION IN SURGERY AND TECHNOLOGYTION AND TRAINING IN TRANSPLANTATION Pierre A. Clavien, Switzerland Pierre Clavien completed his medical study and surgical residency at the University of Geneva and Basel, Switzerland; afterwards performing a PhD in Immunology at the University of Toronto, Canada, on endothelial cell injury during organ preservation. He then completed an ASTS accredited fellowship in liver transplantation and the Toronto General Hospital and Hospital for Sick Children, and was subsequently recruited for a junior faculty position. He then moved in 1994 to Duke University, NC, as Chief of the Division of Transplantation. At Duke, he started as an Assistant Professor and reached the rank of full Professor within five years. In 2001, he moved back to Switzerland to take the position of Chairman of the department of Surgery at the University of Zurich. He also created the Swiss center for HPB surgery and liver transplantation. Since 1994, he has run an active laboratory, continuously funded through NIH, Swiss National Foundation and other competitive funding. His main contribution has been in liver regeneration, partial liver grafting, and organ preservation, with publications in Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine. His laboratory made the discovery of serotonin as a key mediator of regeneration (Science, 2008). He has also been active in clinical research with many studies related to transplantation, including several investigator-driven randomized controlled trials. Dr. Clavien has also developed a simple system, the “Clavien Classification”, to evaluate complications after surgery. This system is currently the gold standard to record complications after many procedures, such as the evaluation of the results of living related liver transplantation in a large US cohort study. He is on the editorial board of most transplant and surgical journals and was the editor of the forum on liver transplantation for the Journal of Hepatology. He is currently one of four associate editors (the first from Europe) of Ann Surg and the Journal of Hepatology. He has also written several books, including “Medical Care of the Liver Transplant Patient” and a large atlas of upper GI and liver surgery. Finally, he is President of the European-African HPB Association and President-Elect of the European Surgical Association and the Swiss Society of Transplantation. TTS • NOVARTIS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO THE EVIDENCE BASE FOR TRANSPLANTATION Yves Vanrenterghem, Belgium Yves Vanrenterghem has devoted a life-long career to clinical research in transplantation medicine. As a renal physician and head of the department of Nephrology at the University Hospitals Leuven, Belgium, he has been involved during the last three decades in the examination of novel immunosuppressive compounds in renal transplantation in numerous randomized controlled trials. He has designed and advised on many phase III and phase IV clinical studies in drug development, as principal investigator or chair. He has authored more than 340 scientific publications and book chapters, including 80 papers on clinical trials. Dr. Vanrenterghem is a world-renowned invited speaker at many large transplantation conferences including the International Transplantation Congress, the American Transplant Congress, the European Society of Organ Transplantation, the European Society of Nephrology, Dialysis and Transplantation, and the International Society of Nephrology. His clinical expertise focuses on (novel) immunosuppression, minimization protocols and complications of transplantation. He has been President of Eurotransplant for over a decade, for which he received an Honorary Award from the Belgian King Albert II. He has been councilor of the TTS for Europe and has been member and chair of many international conferences on transplantation and editorial board member of several scientific journals. TTS • NOVARTIS AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING INVESTIGATOR DRIVEN CLINICAL TRIAL Henrik Ekberg, Sweden Henrik Ekberg is Senior Transplant Surgeon at the University Hospital in Malmö, Sweden, and Professor of Transplant Surgery at Lund University, Sweden. Designed by Dr Henrik Ekberg about 10 years ago, the ELiTE-Symphony study is the largest and most important investigator driven clinical trial in kidney transplantation in recent years. The study had already attracted a great interest at its initiation and 83 sites in 15 countries participated, enrolling 1,645 patients. The aim of the study was to compare reduced doses of calcineurin inhibitors or mTOR inhibitors in addition to induction and mycophenolate mofetil—the regimens of greatest interest at this time. The one-year results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine in 2007 and the three-year results in the American Journal of Transplantation in 2009 (both by H Ekberg et al). More than 20,000 hard copies were ordered before the first publication. Many sites all over the world have taken the Symphony Study results into account when updating their immunosuppression protocols. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considered the study results when accepting the tacrolimus/MMF combination as a comparator regimen in clinical trials in May 2009. Ad hoc analyses of the study database have followed and ten more publications appeared in 2009-2011. Analyses were performed on variation of results in different countries (Demirbas et al), pharmacokinetics (Grinyo et al), target concentration compliance (Ekberg et al), quality of life (Oppenheimer et al), uric acid (Meier-Kriesche et al), toxicity of reduced doses (Ekberg et al), acute rejection risk factors (Frei et al), metabolic syndrome (Claes et al), tacrolimus concentration/MMF dosing and renal function (Ekberg et al), and pharmacogenetics (Lloberas et al). In brief, the Symphony Study was an outstanding clinical trial with major impact on current clinical practice. TTS • ROCHE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN TRANSPLANTATION SCIENCE (BASIC) Kathryn J. Wood, United Kingdom Kathryn Wood is Professor of Immunology in the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences, University of Oxford where she runs the Transplantation Research Immunology Group. Achievements in transplantation immunology by Dr. Kathryn Wood are enormous. Since she joined the Nuffield Department of Surgery at the Radcliffe Hospital in 1982, she first focused on the cellular mechanisms of rejection cascade. The research, then, gradually moved to immunological tolerance, with which she determined the significance of regulatory T cells, so called CD25+ CD4+ FoxP3 T cells, and associated molecules and cytokines in tolerance induction. Her interest then moved from experimental immunology to clinical transplantation immunology. Along with confirming the immunological determined in rodents, she explored those in clinical cases, particularly how to induce and expand regulatory T cells, and determine biological or genetic markers for tolerance. Recently, she engages to explore the impact of memory T cells, and the role of stem cell biology in transplantation surgery. Along with these past achievements, she has been honored by many national and international awards. She is a former President of The Transplantation Society, and acting as a Councilor for various distinguished scientific societies. TTS • ROCHE AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN TRANSPLANTATION SCIENCE (CLINICAL) Hans Sollinger, USA Hans Sollinger was proposed for this award in recognition of his monumental work in making RS-61443 (now CellCept) available as an immunosuppressive agent. In 1988, Dr. Tony Allison, representing Syntex, approached Dr. Sollinger to test a mycophenolate acid derivative termed RS-61443. At this time, neither Syntex nor any other investigator had any evidence that the compound could be used in a clinical setting. Dr. Sollinger agreed to carry out experimental testing and used a dog model as a precursor for possible future human studies. Early on, Dr. Sollinger recognized that the dose recommended by Syntex was much too high to be tolerated by the Gl tract. Dr. Sollinger accordingly systematically lowered the dose of RS-61443 and combined it with lower doses of Cyclosporin A and Prednisone. This regimen proved to be highly successful and Dr. Sollinger thus provided the first evidence of RS-61443's potential clinical efficacy. Dr. Sollinger also predicted and demonstrated that RS-61443 lacked nephro-, neuro- and hepatotoxicity. Syntex was initially reluctant to develop RS-61443, but after a special meeting where Dr. Sollinger presented his data and made a strong recommendation to proceed, Syntex reversed course and drug development was carried out. Dr. Sollinger subsequently performed Phase I/II and the pivotal Phase III trials, which brought the drug through the stringent FDA approval in record time. RS-61443 continues to be used across the entire spectrum of organ transplantation. It is estimated that more than 500,000 patients world-wide have received the drug and it has become one of the most successful drugs in the history of transplantation. The fact of the matter is, that if it were not for Dr. Sollinger's scientific prowess, initiative, perseverance, and steadfast leadership, CellCept would most likely never have become available for the immunosuppressive management of countless thousands of transplant recipients of all transplantable organs. This represents one of the major contributions to organ transplantation over the past 50 years. TTS • ROCHE AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN TRANSLATIONAL SCIENCE Shaf Keshavjee, Canada Shaf Keshavjee is a thoracic surgeon, Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Surgeon-in-Chief and James Wallace McCutcheon Chair in Surgery at University Health Network, and Professor in the Division of Thoracic Surgery and Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering at the University of Toronto. He completed his medical training at the University of Toronto in 1985. He subsequently trained in General Surgery, Cardiac Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto, followed by fellowship training at Harvard University and the University of London for airway surgery and heart-lung transplantation, respectively. He joined the faculty at the University of Toronto in 1994 and was promoted to full professor in 2002. He served as Chair of the Division of Thoracic Surgery at the University of Toronto from 2004 to 2010 and was the inaugural holder of the Pearson-Ginsberg Chair in Thoracic Surgery. He is a scientist in the McEwen Center for Regenerative Medicine at UHN. His experience in the pioneering days of lung transplantation in Toronto stimulated him to develop a career in lung transplantation. He leads a leading research team and is widely published in the field. His research interest is in lung injury related to transplantation. His current work involves the study of molecular diagnostics and gene therapy strategies to repair organs and to engineer superior organs for transplantation. TTS • ROCHE AWARD FOR TRANSPLANT INFECTIOUS DISEASE Camille Nelson Kotton, USA Camille Kotton has a leadership role in international transplantation infectious diseases. In the field of vaccine development, Dr. Kotton developed novel oral Salmonella and Listeria-based vaccines for HIV and influenza. In preliminary human studies, excellent immune responses have been observed. She has also been the lead investigator on multicenter clinical projects on influenza vaccination in the immunocompromised host. Dr. Kotton has established a dedicated Transplant and Compromised Host clinic to serve the Massachusetts General Hospital community with numerous referrals for meticulous and expert clinical care coordinated with medical and surgical colleagues. Her reviews on zoonoses and vaccination have appeared in the Transplant ID and general ID literature. Dr. Kotton’s greatest strength has been as a leader in international education. As President, Dr. Kotton has revitalized the Transplant Infectious Disease section of The Transplantation Society with growing active membership, a strong journal and, perhaps most importantly, well-attended international meetings. She has been the prime organizer of these fully international meetings with strong programs focused on common challenges as well as major problems in underserved areas of the world. She has been invited to travel worldwide to share her expertise. It is a tribute to Dr. Kotton that she brought together the major experts in the field around consensus guidelines for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cytomegalovirus—which are a centerpiece of clinical programs worldwide. TTS • ROCHE AWARD FOR WORLDWIDE IMPACT IN TRANSPLANTATION Faissal A.M. Shaheen, Saudi Arabia Faissal AM Shaheen is the Founder/Director of the Jeddah Kidney Center since 1990—one of the largest transplantation centers in Saudi Arabia. Since 1993, he is also the Director General of the Saudi Center for Organ Transplantation, the national supervising organ procurement center in Saudi Arabia. Dr. Shaheen is an Editor for various journals, including the Saudi Journal of Kidney Diseases and Transplantation, Experimental and Clinical Transplantation, and Nephrology Dialysis Transplantation and is an author of 160 full papers and 168 abstracts. He is a member of 28 national and international societies, and has served on the Councils of The Transplantation Society (Councilor), the International Society for Organ Donation and Procurement (Councilor), the Middle East Society of Organ Transplantation (President and Councilor), the World Health Organization-Declaration of Istanbul Custodian Group (Councilor), and the Madrid Consultant Conference on Organizing Global Organ Donation (Steering Committee Member). Dr. Shaheen works to exchange expertise in the field of organ donation and transplantation within the Middle East region and serves as a representative of Saudi Arabia on the Gulf Cooperation Council organ transplantation committee to establish successful organ sharing program in these countries. His main areas of interest include updating guidelines and establishing policies and procedures for organ donation and transplantation, treatment of chronic kidney diseases, renal replacement therapy and prophylaxis.

The TTS – Astellas Young Investigator Awards were presented during the Berlin Transplantation Congress to the following recipients who submitted abstracts and received the highest scores from an international panel of reviewers. These awards were made possible through an unrestricted educational grant from Astellas. Congratulations to all the recipients! The Transplantation Society will profile these Young Investigator recipients in upcoming issues of TTS Tribune during 2013. Award Recipients Esmé Dijke, Canada Vivek Kute, India Gisele Meinerz, Brazil Miwa Morita, USA Nicolas Poirier, France Thomas Rogerson, Australia Moritz Schmelzle, USA Tina Schmidt, Germany Adnan Sharif, UK Simo Syrjälä, Finland

Basic Sciences at the 24th International Congress of the Transplant Society Anita Chong alongside TTS-British Transplantation Society Recipients Maria Hernandez-Fuentes (Mentor) and Estefania Nova Lamperti (Mentee) The International Congress of the Transplant Society in Berlin was a great success and basic science contributions were excellently represented. There was a record high of 289 abstract submissions, with 48 selected for oral and 28 for mini-oral presentations. In addition, key opinion leaders in basic science provided updates in one Basic Science Plenary, eight Sunrise and another eight State-of-the-Art sessions, all extremely well attended and informative. The Plenary Session on Tolerance: Strategies on the Verge of Translation was one of many excellent sessions in which Drs. Qizhi Tang, Hans-Dieter Volk and Herman Waldman detailed the pathway towards achieving transplantation tolerance in the clinic. The basic science networking and award presentation was one of the many highlights of the meeting for basic scientists attending the Congress. Over 100 participants engaging in lively discussions attended the event. A total of 22 Mentee-Mentor Travel Awards were jointly awarded with the Australian/NZ, Canadian, European, French, German, Japanese and UK Transplantation Societies. Five additional awards supported solely by TTS were awarded to applicants from developing (China and Columbia) and non-collaborating (USA) countries. This year, the Basic Science Committee also gave out four TTS International Basic Science Research Exchange Fellowship awards—three for Trainees and one for Faculty—to facilitate opportunities for pre- and post-doctoral trainees and faculty in the basic science of transplantation to travel from their home institution to another laboratory for research training opportunities and for developing collaborations. The Transplantation Society continues to strongly support basic research in transplantation, and we, as the co-chairs of the basic science committee of TTS, encourage all of you with basic science interests to participate in TTS sponsored meetings and activities. Please join us at the 2013 ESOT/TTS Basic Science Symposium, which will take place in 2013 (dates to be posted shortly on tts.org website).

The WIT initiative went from strength to strength during the 24th International Congress in Berlin. We were delighted by the enthusiasm shown for the initiative by both women and men, and the attendance at the various WIT sessions. The TTS booth at the meeting had a dedicated WIT desk, where we welcomed many visitors. Women were able to sign up for the initiative and pick up some of the WIT postcards, now available in 11 different languages including: Arabic, Dutch, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish and Thai. The now traditional networking event was attended by over 100 women and, much to our delight, a few men as well. The lunchtime meeting provided the opportunity for mentors and mentees to meet face-to-face, often for the first time, and the attendees made the most of the opportunity to establish contacts. Elmi Muller gave a very entertaining and well-received talk intriguingly entitled “Do You Treat Rottweilers or Poodles?”. The WIT sunrise symposium was delivered by three extremely interesting speakers who gave thought-provoking talks on feminization in medicine and different perspectives on being a female professional in the field of transplantation. It was very encouraging to see so many people, again both men and women, attend the innovative WIT oral abstract session on the Wednesday afternoon. Highlights included: the consideration of gender and how it impacted on decisions about living donation; the situation and number of women in various spheres of the profession; a personal account of collaboration in a married couple—a transplant surgeon and maths professor; outcome data; and, political, organizational and social changes and their effects on women in transplantation. We would like to say a big ‘thank you’ to everyone who visited us and took part in the WIT sessions in Berlin—it was a dynamic meeting and a pleasure to see so many interesting and varied people involved in and supportive of the WIT initiative.

Preparations are well under way for the upcoming IXA 2013 congress to be held in Osaka, Japan, and we take this opportunity to kick off a membership drive illustrating the benefits of being involved as a member. As one of the new benefits, we are pleased to announce that, in conjunction with Wiley, we are supporting a new “Xeno Prize” award. The 7,000 USD annual award, open to IXA members, for the best paper published in Xenotransplantation will be presented at the IXA and TTS Congresses. Visit our website for more information about the award and membership—www.tts.org/ixa.

The Transplant Infectious Disease section of The Transplantation Society had an excellent and very well attended 6th International Transplant Infectious Diseases Conference in Berlin, with over 150 attendees from all over the world. State-of-the-art subjects included HIV+ organ transplants, hepatitis C, composite tissue transplants, best management of post-transplantation lymphoproliferative disorder, as well as multiple other topics. Further information can be found at www.tid2012.org, and TTS members can download talks from the meeting via the TTS website. Another international consensus meeting took place in Saint-Saveur (just north of Montreal, Canada) from October 25-26 on the management of cytomegalovirus after solid organ transplantation. Over 40 international experts convened to develop updated guidelines on management of the most common infection after solid organ transplantation. Multidisciplinary guidelines regarding management of infections and composite tissue transplantation are nearly complete. New members are warmly welcomed by the Transplant Infectious Disease section throughout the year.

In July of 2013, world-renown scientists and keen young investigators will meet in Milan to share the latest discoveries in the fields of cell and stem cell transplantation and regenerative medicine. An expected 500 delegates will be exposed to a blend of ground-breaking science along with the stunning historical and fine art attractions of Milan. In fact, in addition to being the Italy’s largest industrial city (hosting the World EXPO in 2015), Milan has a centre pervaded by an ancient atmosphere (Mediolanum). The scientific sessions will cover both basic and clinical research in the area of cell transplantation treatment for neurological, endocrine, cardiac and gastrointestinal diseases. Plenary sessions, sessions with short (5–6 minute) oral presentations, and poster discussions are planned during the meeting’s 4-day duration, allowing as much time as possible for new and original findings and young investigator research. The venue will be in the unique setting of the University of Milan, designed in the 15th Century by the architect Filarete to host the Hospital Ca’ Granda, one of the oldest general hospitals in Italy.

During the ISODP Council Meeting in Berlin, the strategic plan to focus and promote its objectives i.e. increase donation internationally, enhance available resources to improve donation and establish an integrated network of donation professionals has been addressed on high priority. Several councilors in three groups are engaged in formulating a work plan to be hopefully implemented before the 2013 meeting in Sydney. The current membership of ISODP has less than 5% transplant professionals from countries with emerging economies where transplant activity has picked up appreciably. Therefore there is a need to promote cooperation, education and exchange among transplant professionals from emerging nations. TTS has taken the lead by offering membership fees at substantially reduced rates to increase its membership. The ISODP is planning to adopt a similar policy, opening its door to the developing world in need of ISODP expertise for promotion of transplantation. The TTS council in Berlin was very appreciative of the idea and ISODP Council is also supportive. A working paper is being developed to implement this as soon as possible; it will provide ISODP members the opportunity of becoming a part of the leading TTS global network of physicians, surgeons and basic scientists involved in transplantation, free access to educational material on the TTS website, online access and reduced rates for journal and reduced registration fees at conferences. The 12th Congress of ISODP will be held in Sydney, Australia November 21–24, 2013. The organizing Committee, under the Chair of Jeremy Chapman, is planning scientific and educational programs to present the issues, ideas and innovations in the fields of donation and procurement in meaningful, detailed and accessible ways, to stimulate debate and discussion and to hear the best ideas from across the world. The negotiations with South Korea are in final stages to host the next ISODP Congress in Seoul in 2015 while the bids are invited to host the ISODP Congress in 2017.

The IHCTAS program at the TTS Berlin Congress included two state-of-the-art symposia and a concurrent oral presentation in vascularized composite allografts. Topics included rehabilitation, electrodiagnostic studies, immunogenicity of a vascularized composite allograft (VCA), costimulation blockade in large animal models, cell therapy, cortical reintegration, future challenges, unresolved problems in the musculoskeletal system, and updates on case reports and clinical series. Excellent presentations were given by Lionel Badet, Vlodek Siemionow, Gerald Brandacher, Stefan Tullius, Josef Kurtz, Rolf Barth, Theresa Hautz, Annemarie Weissenbacher, Vijay Gorantla, Manfred Stangl, Palmina Petruzzo, Andrew Lee, Maria Siemionow, Stefan Schneeberger, Scott Levin and Michel Desmurget. We look forward to welcoming you in IHCTAS Poland in August 2013!

The biannual meeting of the Intestinal Transplant Association will take place in Oxford, UK from June 26th to June 29th, 2013, providing a combination of theme-orientated plenary sessions integrated with abstract presentations that will allow practitioners of every discipline to contribute. Current controversies will be debated and sessions devoted to discussion of complex individual cases will be held. The opportunities for abstract presenters will include full oral and mini-oral presentations as well as posters. Pre-congress post-graduate courses will address specific aspects of the treatment of patients with intestinal failure: medical and nutritional management, the surgery of intestinal failure, and the specific issues that concern Allied Health Professionals. This will be a compact and congenial meeting that will take place in the stimulating and historical ambience of the university city of Oxford. Balanced with the hard work of the event, an enjoyable programme of social events has been planned and, of course, sightseeing for those that wish.

TTS President Francis L. Delmonico and TTS Secretary Gabriel Danovitch are receiving the Shumakov Medal from Professor Sergey Gautier, Director of Medical Research Institute of Transplantation and Artificial Organs of Ministry of Health of Russian Federation. The Medals were given in recognition of their lifelong career dedication to organ donation and transplantation at a ceremony in Moscow on September 27, 2012.