BTS

British Transplantation Society 2023

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From QUOD to Scotland: QUOD travelled to Edinburgh for the 50th anniversary of the British Transplantation Society (BTS).

In March, QUOD Research Assistant, Dr Hannah McGivern and Technical Assistant, Sophia Ali journeyed up to Edinburgh for the Joint Congress hosted by the British Transplantation Society (BTS) and NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT). This year, delegates were able to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the BTS and showcase the latest developments in the fields of organ donation and transplantation.

The conference provided a great opportunity to speak with so many of our colleagues from across the QUOD consortium, including Specialist Nurses in Organ Donation (SNODs), retrieval teams, clinicians and researchers, answer questions and listen to feedback.

When asked about her experience after attending her first conference as a representative of QUOD, Sophia commented on how great it was to meet the wider QUOD network: “I communicate with all the SNODs and NORS teams through e-mail, so meeting them in person was lovely. They gave lots of positive feedback about QUOD and how it has been working well over the years in donor hospitals. SNODs enjoy being part of the process and knowing how the work we do day to day can bring forward some ground-breaking research. It was great to speak to the people who handle the QUOD boxes after I have shipped them, to hear what their roles are in QUOD and to listen to them speak about their own personal experiences during the many stages of the QUOD sample collection process. They were also incredibly surprised that each QUOD box that they have handled is built by me!”

QUOD was honoured to be included in the opening keynote lecture on ‘Predicting the Future – Technologies to Inform Organ Utilisation’ delivered by Professor Menna Clatworthy, University of Cambridge. Furthermore, we were delighted to meet with healthcare professionals and researchers who have utilised QUOD samples as part of their research studies that were presented at the congress.

On the final day of the conference, QUOD Principal Investigator, Prof Rutger Ploeg and Basic Science Co-ordinator, Dr Maria Kaisar delivered a presentation as part of the UK Organ Donation and Transplantation (ODT) Research Network session, acknowledging the ten-year accomplishments of the biobank as well as recent collaborations and exciting new developments.

British Transplantation Society Conference 2022 debrief – by Azita Mellati

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After a year of virtual meetings and conferences, this year the British Transplantation Society (BTS) congress was again held in person at the ICC Belfast. The conference provided a great opportunity for clinicians and researchers to meet up and share the latest about their research and developments on their projects. Over the 3 days of the conference including 31 sessions, more than 100 talks were presented.

Our team from the Nuffield Department of Surgical Sciences (NDS) actively participated in the conference with a total 3 presentations and 1 poster. Dr Mohamed Elzawahry and Dr Letizia Lo Faro presented their research work on “Safety and feasibility of oxygenated hypothermic machine perfusion in the preservation of donor organs for pancreas transplantation” and “Normothermic machine perfusion of the liver supports protein translation and mitochondrial function while reducing protein degradation and metabolic imbalance: a proteomics study” in the “Dragon’s Den” and “Medawar medal presentations” sessions, respectively. The poster titled “Evaluation of kidney injury after treatment with CC-4066 during cold storage and assessment during normothermic reperfusion in a porcine ischemia reperfusion injury model” by Ms. Pommelien Meertens (as part of her Research Internship at NDS) was presented during the conference as well. I also had the opportunity to present my own research on “Investigation into the effect of Alpha-1 antitrypsin delivered via different preservation methods on ischemia-reperfusion injury in pig kidneys” as part of the “Science oral presentations” session. I received very interesting feedback on my project and had the great fortune to discuss details and plans with the audience and other attendees.

In addition to the scientific part of the conference, we also had the opportunity to enjoy and come together to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the BTS. Over the course of the Gala Dinner themed “the 70s”, members shared good laughter and created wonderful memories. The conference also provided the opportunity to acknowledge and celebrate the lifetime of research work of several members of the BTS, including Professor Peter Friend from within our own department. Overall, this year’s BTS congress was a major success and a great sign that in person, scientific gatherings are back again for the better.