Carnegie Mellon + Mayo Clinic = Transforming Transplant Initiative

Carnegie Mellon University and the Mayo Clinic have teamed up in the Transforming Transplant Initiative. Watch this video to learn more about how nine teams are working toward advancements on different projects across multiple organs.

"My vision is to not just help one patient, but help the thousands who have end-stage organ failure get lifesaving transplants," says C. Burcin Taner, M.D.  , a Mayo Clinic surgeon who leads the initiative. Dr. Taner is also the chair of the Department of Transplantation at Mayo Clinic in Florida.

Transcript

00:00:07 Keith Cook: Carnegie Mellon University and the  Mayo Clinic are highly complementary in   their skill sets. We have this unique  opportunity now in the Transforming   Transplant Initiative. We have nine  teams working on different projects   across multiple different organs, bringing  in almost any imaginable engineering skill,   talent, area to bear to look at all these  organs in different clinical spaces. C. Brucin Taner: We created Transforming Transplant  project in 2018, trying to address the   shortcomings of current transplant practice in  the United States and the rest of the world.   Every day, in my practice, I see patients who  are sick with organ failure and unfortunately,   they may not have a chance to receive an  organ transplant. So one solution could be   those organs that are donated, can we  make them better with new technology,  

00:01:03 with engineering technology? Another could  be biofabrication of creating new organs   from scratch using technology, such as 3D  printing of organs using stem cells. We are   looking into those technologies and our goal  is to accelerate the innovation by bringing   the Mayo Clinic's clinical expertise with  the Carnegie Mellon's engineering expertise. Cook: At Carnegie Mellon University, we  have the Bioengineered Organs Initiative,   and within that initiative, we have faculty  members who work on fully biological,   bioprinted organs, as well as artificial  organs. The potential there is immense,   immense to expand the number of organs  that are available for donation,   to have organs that can be mass manufactured so  that there is no waiting list. that any patient   who needs a replacement organ can receive  a replacement organ within weeks to months.

00:02:10 Taner: By collaborating with Carnegie  Mellon University and their experts,   our aim is to accelerate the  innovation, find new solutions,   and then provide care to those patients who  have organ dysfunction and organ failure. Cook: It's wonderful to sit down  and talk to the clinicians here and   understand the problems that they're facing  in much greater depth. And so oftentimes,   these are not even problems that  we would have thought about. Taner: There's a lot of excitement  at the Mayo Clinic Florida campus,   and that excitement is around Transforming  Transplant project. And we think that the   Transforming Transplant project could be the  engine of change in this campus also. And we're   lucky that our institution is supporting us,  Carnegie Mellon University is supporting this  

00:02:59 initiative. And we are very excited that we're  going to make a lot of advancements in this area.