TRANSPLANTATION RESEARCH PRIZE 2023

Kidney transplantation is the best treatment option for patients with end-stage renal failure and is associated with a significant increase in long-term survival and quality of life. After transplantation, our patients must be treated with immunosuppressive drugs for the rest of their lives in order to minimize the risk of transplant rejection.

Immunosuppression, on the other hand, increases our patients' susceptibility to infection and promotes the development of various tumors - optimal immunosuppressive therapy after transplantation therefore poses a particular challenge. Ideally, immunocompetence, i.e. the ability of the patient's own immune system to recognize danger, should only be restricted to the extent that no rejection of the foreign organ occurs, while infections can still be reliably recognized and combated.

The hope is to be able to use immune monitoring to better assess the immune competence of individual patients in order to optimally dose immunosuppressive therapy. With our projects, we want to validate various biomarkers, such as donor-specific cell-free DNA, in transplant aftercare with regard to their usefulness in immune monitoring in order to improve transplant survival and thus the survival of our patients.

About the prize:
The DTG's Transplantation Research Prize is awarded each year at the DTG's annual conference for outstanding scientific research projects dealing with the issue of immunosuppression or other clinically relevant topics in transplantation medicine. The prize money amounts to EUR 10,000 and is donated in equal parts by Neovii Biotech GmbH and Chiesi GmbH.