Ongoing research
is vital to the success of the Transplant Program at UT Southwestern Medical
Center. As an academic medical center, we participate in clinical trials and
other research aimed at improving patient care and outcomes.
We continuously
evaluate new technologies for treating heart, liver, lung, and kidney disease in
order to provide the highest level of care for patients who need transplants,
and we’re investigating novel ways to increase the number of healthy donor organs
so that we can help more people.
Topics of ongoing
clinical studies include acute liver failure, liver cancer, viral hepatitis,
fatty liver, and autoimmune liver disease. We’re also building knowledge
through the UT Southwestern Liver Disease Repository and Registry, aimed at
learning more about liver disease and other related disorders.
Known for
groundbreaking work in kidney transplantation, our expert physicians and
scientists are behind several innovations that have become national standards
of care. For example, UT Southwestern’s program was one of the first to use
anti-lymphocyte antibodies to prevent and treat rejection; calcium channel
blockers to improve the early function of transplanted kidneys; and molecular
biology to better match donor kidneys with the patients who need them.
In 2016, UT
Southwestern transplant surgeons performed the first lung transplant in Texas
using donated lungs treated with then-new technology known as ex-vivo lung
perfusion. The technology allows physicians to evaluate and recondition lungs,
making lungs that would have been unsuitable for transplantation potentially
viable. UT Southwestern was one of 16 medical centers across the country – and
the only one in Texas – participating in a national clinical trial of the
technology, which was aimed at significantly expanding the number of donor
lungs available for transplantation.
