The National Institutes of Health awarded two researchers at Charlottesville-based University of Virginia Medical School grants totaling $8.6 million to improve lung transplantation, according to NewsMedical.net.
Researchers Victor E. Lubach, PhD, and Irving Kron, MD, received the grants to support projects and research that may increase the number of lungs available for transplant, create a way to detect post-transplant complications, prevent lung rejection and hinder lung ischemia reperfusion injuries, which occur when oxygen supply to the lung is compromised.
"We envision UVA as eventually becoming a lung rehab center where donor lungs would arrive to undergo [ex vivo lung perfusion] and, if they look great, they can be sent out to the appropriate hospital for transplant," Dr. Laubach, who is collaborating on the project with Dr. Kron, a UVA transplant surgeon, told NewsMedical.net.
EVLP is the process of assessing and preparing donor lungs outside of a body prior to transplant surgery.