Advancing Hope Through Science: The Inaugural Richard Slayman International Workshop on Xenotransplantation
The inaugural Richard Slayman Clinical Xenotransplantation Workshop convened >140 participants from North America, Europe, and Asia to discuss emerging advances and challenges in translating xenotransplantation from bench to bedside. This report summarized key discussions spanning kidney, heart, and liver xenotransplantation, with an emphasis on clinical readiness and future directions. Core themes included the importance of patient selection, the role of genetic editing to reduce immune incompatibility, adaptive immunosuppressive strategies, novel molecular tools for immune and infectious surveillance, and the growing recognition of innate immune activation as a barrier to long-term graft survival. The workshop highlighted decedent models as a translational bridge, the use of machine perfusion in liver xenograft applications, and progress in living recipients. Notably, 1 patient achieved 9 mo of kidney xenograft function, underscoring the feasibility of extended survival in carefully selected candidates. Perspectives from patients and families, including a reflection honoring Richard Slayman, the first living recipient of a genetically edited pig kidney, framed the scientific dialogue within the broader human impact of this emerging field. The workshop marked a pivotal moment in aligning scientific, ethical, and regulatory efforts to advance safe and equitable access to xenotransplantation.
Authors
- David Ayares (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4638-3321)
- Winfred W. Williams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9984-7102)
- Ivy A. Rosales (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0621-3202)
- Maaz Muhammad (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4003-1149)
- B. Reichart
- Erik Berglund (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7049-7348)
- Alessia Giarraputo (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4070-7943)
- Shoko Kimura (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5250-9448)
- David C. Cleveland (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7954-3512)
- Keren Ladin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4310-8260)
- Joe Tector
- Macey Leigh Levan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4239-1252)
- Claire Avillach
- A. Loupy
- Andrew B. Adams (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8925-9956)
- V. Kumar
- Leonardo V. Riella (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7636-3196)
- Kazuhiko Yamada (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0510-5843)
- Cooper Dk
- Tatsuo Kawai
- Fishman Ja
- Alexander Sagar
- Nahel Elias
- Nader Moazami
- Mike Curtis
- Bartley Griffith
- Thiago J. Borges
- Vasishta Tatapudi
- A. Benedict Cosimi
- Pablo Legorreta
- Greg Nowak
- Megan Sykes
- Stuart Sweet
- Robert B. Colvin
- Christian P. Larsen
- Robert A. Montgomery
- Brendan J. Keating
- Richard N. Pierson
- David Sachs
Institutions
- Tufts University (US)
- University of Maryland, Baltimore (US)
- National Institutes of Health (US)
- University of Minnesota (US)
- Emory Healthcare (US)
- Children's Hospital of Los Angeles (US)
- Harvard University (US)
- Johns Hopkins University (US)
- Emory University (US)
- Inserm (FR)
- Université Paris Cité (FR)
- Johns Hopkins Medicine (US)
- Karolinska Institutet (SE)
- University of Alabama at Birmingham (US)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Massachusetts General Hospital (US)
- Royalty Pharma (United States) (US)
- Genesis Foundation (US)
- Paris Cardiovascular Research Center (FR)
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (US)
- Centre of Experimental Medicine of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK)
- Miami Transplant Institute (US)
- New York University (US)
- Columbia University (US)
- Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Transplantation
- Published
- 2026-02-17
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1097/tp.0000000000005652
- Primary Topic
- Xenotransplantation and immune response
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00