Research Strengths

Transplant surgeons are researching different aspects of cancer and tumor biology, ranging from the treatment of locally-advanced pancreatic cancer and the multidisciplinary treatment of hepatobiliary malignancies to immunotherapies.

Transplant surgery faculty members are researching how to improve healthcare outcomes and policy in a variety of different fields, including reducing opioid use, improving surgical outcomes, the impact of improving patient health before surgery, and developing national policy on transplantation.

U-M transplantation scientists discovered that organ transplants are not merely passive targets of the recipient’s immune system but rather change in ways that can help prevent rejection. They have also devised new ways to look at the immune cells that recognize and potentially destroy a transplant, a potential spring board to developing novel ways of controlling those cells without broadly compromising immune control of infections.

Extracorporeal life support (ECLS) technology was developed at Michigan Medicine nearly 50 years ago. Based on this technology, transplant surgery faculty members investigating new ways to resuscitate and heal donor organs to expand today's inadequate supply.