Our commitment to high-quality research has been critical to the success of the Multi Organ Transplant Program. Initiatives in both the basic science of immunology/transplantation as well as active clinical trials, which evaluate new immunosuppressive agents are in progress. Results of basic science have resulted in work going from the bench to bedside in applications of new immunotherapy, new approaches to the treatment of patients with immunological and infectious related problems in the setting of transplantation. The Multi Organ Transplant Program is currently focused in three primary areas of research: tolerance, organ supply, and inflammation and repair. These key fields encompass important topics for investigation such as gene therapy, organogenesis, xenotransplantation, and stem cell therapy.

The Transplant Research Group is headed by Dr. Gary Levy, the recipient of a CIHR Novartis Chair in Transplantation Research (1997-2005), and is composed of 6 additional CIHR funded scientists:

• Dr. Gregory Downey
  Fraser Eliot Chair in Transplantation Research (2000-2005)
• Dr. Ori Rotstein
  Peter Crossgrove Chair in General Surgery Chair
• Dr. Myron Cybulsky
  Scholar of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada
• Dr. Philip Marsden
  Keenan Chair in Medicine
• Dr. Li Zhang and
• Dr. M.J. Phillips.

Associate Investigators in the MOT research group are currently being funded by the CIHR, Heart and Stroke Foundation, Kidney Foundation of Canada, Arthritis Society of Canada and Cystic Fibrosis Society of Canada. They include:

• Dr. S. Keshavjee, head of the research team studying gene therapy in Lung Transplant,
• Dr. Reginald Gorczynski studying novel mechanisms of tolerance induction,
• Dr. Mark Cattral investigating the role of apoptosis in transplantation rejection, and
• Dr. Thomas Waddell studying endothelial cell activation.