Feinberg
Northwestern Medicine | Northwestern University | Faculty Profiles

News Center

  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Menu
  • Categories
    • Campus News
    • Disease Discoveries
    • Clinical Breakthroughs
    • Education News
    • Scientific Advances
    • Podcast
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
    • COVID-19
    • Cardiology
    • Cancer
    • Neurology and Neuroscience
    • Aging and Longevity
    • Artificial Intelligence in Medicine
  • News Archives
  • About Us
    • Media Contact
    • Share Your News
    • News Feeds
    • Social Media
    • Contact Us
Home » Transplant Chief: Next Era of Transplantation is Approaching
Campus News

Transplant Chief: Next Era of Transplantation is Approaching

By Will DossFeb 8, 2022
Share
Facebook Twitter Email

Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, the Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research and director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center (CTC), said he arrived at Feinberg in November 2021 with a mission statement: “to have patient-centric impact through quality innovation and education.”

Nadig, who is also chief of Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery, looks to build on Northwestern’s strong foundation of transplant initiatives and push the CTC into the next era of transplantation. Read a Q&A with Nadig below, or listen to an episode of the Breakthroughs podcast.



What drew you to Feinberg and the Comprehensive Transplant Center?

Satish Nadig, MD, PhD, the Edward G. Elcock Professor of Surgical Research, chief of Organ Transplantation in the Department of Surgery and director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center.

The CTC and Northwestern have always been on leading edge of innovation and function as a pipeline for the next generation of transplant surgeons and physicians. Northwestern Memorial Hospital has the number-one transplant program in the city — we performed 510 total solid organ transplants in 2021, a 28 percent increase from the previous year — and we need to build on that.

This is especially important as I believe we’re on the cusp of the next era of transplant: the era of technology and innovation.

Where is the transplant field now, and what’s around the corner?

Transplant has a very interesting history. After the very first transplant was performed in 1954, there was an era of immunosuppression: People had to trick the immune system to keep organs from rejecting. After that, we improved preservation to transport organs across state lines and sharpened surgical techniques to perform minimally invasive procedures and use less blood, to name a couple of examples.

Since the ‘90s, we’ve been very focused on policy and allocation — which is quite important, especially in regards to racial inequality in transplants — but the actual science of transplantation has not moved much since the ‘90s.

Here at Northwestern, we have the scientists and the interdisciplinary framework to bring things like cellular therapies, CRISPR/Cas9 technology and bioengineering from the bench to the bedside. For example, we are very interested in nano-therapies, and we are working with experts like Samuel Stupp and Evan Scott to jump-start our efforts here.

We can improve care before surgery, too, so we’re doing things including pre-treating organs prior to transplantation to minimize the need for immunosuppression, and using biomarkers to replace invasive biopsies to improve quality of life for patients.

What makes transplantation different from other fields?

One of the things that transplant has that few other medical fields do is access to human organs. About 40 percent of donated organs go untranslated, for various reasons. This provides a tremendous opportunity for research: When a donor gives up an organ, their intention can be realized not by immediately saving a life, but by changing a paradigm in the field of transplant.

Further, transplant surgery itself is so broad-based and takes many skill sets. A transplant surgeon can operate above and below the diaphragm and in adults and children. We work with blood vessels, minimally invasively and in open surgery, and have to possess working knowledge of the medicine behind many different physiologies.

In addition, and perhaps most importantly to me, it’s one of the only fields that relies on man’s humanity to man — we don’t have a job unless somebody gives up a part of themselves, in life or in passing, to help someone else.

Leadership Surgery
Share. Facebook Twitter Email

Related Posts

Distinguished Implementation Scientist to Lead Medical Social Sciences

Jun 14, 2022

Northwestern Faculty Elected to Society for Clinical Trials Board

Jun 8, 2022

Remembering John Csernansky, MD

Jun 6, 2022

Comments are closed.

Latest News

Fathers’ Presence During Childhood Predicts Adult Testosterone Levels

Jun 29, 2022

Epigenetic Biomarkers Predict CVD Risk

Jun 28, 2022

Student Spearheads Ukraine Aid Efforts

Jun 27, 2022

Hospitals Bound to Patient Safety Rules that Aren’t all Backed by Evidence

Jun 24, 2022

Identifying Protein Interactions that Promote Cancer Growth

Jun 24, 2022
  • News Center Home
  • Categories
  • Press Release
  • Media Coverage
  • Editor’s Picks
  • News Archives
  • About Us
Flickr Photos
20220617_NM_0434
20220617_NM_0858
20220617_NM_0643
20220617_NM_0835
20220617_NM_0544
20220617_NM_0450
20220617_NM_0790
20220617_NM_0811
20220617_NM_0851
20220617_NM_0696
20220617_NM_0779
20220617_NM_0838

Northwestern University logo

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

RSS Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Flickr YouTube Instagram
Copyright © 2022 Northwestern University
  • Contact Northwestern University
  • Disclaimer
  • Campus Emergency Information
  • Policy Statements

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.