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.
