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January 25, 2022 in About Donation, Industry & Innovation, News
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Time Is the Enemy in Transplantation
LifeSource Pursues New Ways to Speed Up or Stop Biological Time.
Research & Innovation
A Strong Commitment to Advance Medicine and Treatments
If you said yes – or are considering donation for research – thank you. While transplant is life-saving for one individual, donating a loved one’s organs and tissues for research impacts an exponential number of lives. LifeSource is proud to offer chances for our communities to advance medicine and treatments through research, and ultimately improving and healing lives.
“My Dad, ‘Big Papa’ to his grandchildren, passed away at the age of 80, ten years after his second heart transplant. We are so excited and proud to have given his heart back to research so others can continue to learn from it.”
Chris, son of research donor
Frequently Asked Questions
Research comes in many forms:
- Basic Science – How a drug is metabolized is an example. This is a common use for livers and the need for research livers is high. All drugs that we take have been tested on human liver cells that have been donated for research.
- Clinical and Pre-clinical trials – An example of this is hearts and lungs from Donation After Circulatory Death donors. LifeSource worked with local and national programs to offer this opportunity to donor families and recipients. These hearts were put on a device that would help ensure the organ was functioning prior to transplantation.
- Testing of equipment – When new equipment is being developed or modified, donated organs are used to ensure the equipment is working properly. An example includes testing new equipment to advance transportation methods for organ donation.
- Testing of new procedures – An example of this may be a new recovery technique for tissue donation. It is tested on gifts that are not suitable for transplant, so those gifts are not wasted.
Research goes beyond a specific organ or tissue – research includes education and training and is a tremendously valuable part of our research program.
- Training for transplant fellows – fellows are required to recover a certain number of organs. This provides an opportunity for that training. Some of our transplant programs have training programs for transplant surgeons. LifeSource supports these programs and helps track the cases they are involved in as it is a requirement of their training.
- Training for new team members – at LifeSource and beyond – When a new clinical team member is starting, they may learn to recover a particular organ or tissue that otherwise would not be used for transplant, or they may learn new technics for recovery of organ or tissue. How to recover the heart for valves is a common example. Kidneys may be used to teach how to place the kidney on the pump. This reduces stress by not having to worry that they may harm the kidney that is going to be transplanted.
It varies depending on the Anatomy Bequest Program that you choose. Some programs require that the deceased donor is unaltered after death to be accepted into the program. Other programs will work with donor organizations to facilitate any opportunity for transplantable donation as well as accepting the whole body donation.
The research authorization rate in LifeSource service area is 80 to 85 percent for families approached for donation.
Research Partnerships
LifeSource is dedicated to working in close partnership with researchers in academic medical centers, hospitals, universities, and biotechnology centers to advance the field of research through organ and tissue donation. Our research partners include:
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University of Minnesota research includes:
- Innovating pancreatic surgical techniques to improve patient outcomes and research in pancreatic islet cells for transplant.
- Cryopreservation of skin leading to the improvement of skin and wound healing for burn patients and others.
- Spleen and pancreas cellular study to improve organ function and longevity of transplanted pancreatic islet cells in diabetics.
- Visible Heart Lab: Reanimate hearts and lungs to take detailed images of anatomical structures for teaching of medical students and physicians.
- Several types of tissue and organs are collected to understand the function of the human resident memory T cells. Because of this, researchers can investigate the response of the human body and its immune system to infections and vaccinations. Information learned from this study may help scientists in the development of new drugs or strategies to fight against infections.
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LifeNet Health research includes liver cell testing to develop better safety and toxicology studies of new drugs and disease treatments.
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Network for Pancreatic Donor with Diabetes (nPOD)
Gifts from autoantibody positive donors will help scientists study the autoimmune process at the very earliest stages of beta cell destruction. Many of our scientists believe that understanding what is making the body attack its own pancreatic cells will be the key to finding a cure.
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International Institute For The Advancement of Medicine (IIAM) research areas include: Cardiovascular disease; Gastrointestinal diseases; Chronic Kidney Disease; Acute and Chronic Liver Failure; End Stage Lung Disease, Asthma and COPD, and RSV; and Diabetes.
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Mayo Clinic research includes:
- Defining human organ molecular biology and mechanisms of tissue preservation. After a heart transplant, the new heart may not work well at first, maybe because it undergoes stress and inflammation. This study evaluates and characterizes the biological and molecular events that occur during heart preservation.
Become a Research Partner
LifeSource collaborates with a variety of local and national research organizations (research institutes and universities) that require donated organs and tissues for their studies. All research partners must complete a project application. All new applications will be reviewed and examined by the Research Committee Members who are transplant surgeons and scientists.
News & Stories Related to Research
View all updates for research and innovation.
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June 30, 2021 in Industry & Innovation
Unique Partnership Could Save Lives
Read MoreIn May of 2021, LifeSource partnered with Mercy Hospital and MissionGO, a transportation logistics company to create an innovative solution to some of the challenges in organ transportation.
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June 21, 2021 in About Donation, Industry & Innovation
New Research Aims to Stop Biological Time, More Help for Those Waiting
Read MoreEvery single day is a battle with the clock to recover and transplant an organ. The time from donation to transplant per organ is very limited (ranging from 4 hours to 24 hours). Due to ground-breaking research, this timeline is about to change.
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January 07, 2021 in Industry & Innovation, Our Partners
19-Year-Old Donates Heart Using Revolutionary Technology
Read MoreWyatt had the unique opportunity to be the first person in the upper midwest to donate a heart as part of a U.S trial of the TransMedics Organ Care System.
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February 17, 2017 in Industry & Innovation, News
A Perfect Match: Minnesota’s First Face Transplant
Read MoreIn June 2016, Calen “Rudy” Ross gave the gifts of organ, eye and tissue donation after his death, including a very special gift – the gift of his face. This is his story, as told by his wife Lillian.
Families to take comfort in knowing their loved one was able to help others through research and that part of them was able to be used for a greater good.
LifeSource Team Member
Have Questions?
Please reach out to LifeSource’s Research Coordinator for more information on research and innovation.
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Ruhollah Nourian Read Bio