11.5.5. Research in the transplantation field

 

Current situation of the research in the transplant field at European level:

 

The EU should finance projects that really include most of the European countries, in such a way that the economic efforts are centred on a lower number of projects but of a stronger potential impact, related to transplantation medicine both in terms of biomedical science and public health policy. The role of the EU should be to facilitate cross-talk between healthcare professionals and politics at organizational level, i.e. institute a framework for resolution of practical problems, where ideologies, religion, political influences be abandoned in favour of pragmatism.

Within the EU there are huge differences in access that cannot merely be explained by differences in donation rates. Accessibility means to work hard on organ shortage, but also set up transparent healthcare processes, expand these processes to all social classes and racial categories as well as constantly monitor organ allocation modalities. Again, these goals are to be achieved only through active integration of all the actors involved in the transplant process: healthcare professionals, stakeholders

and authorities. In fact, the Seven Framework Research Programme, recently launched by the European Commission offers a unique opportunity to implement a new vision of transplantation research requiring a high level of integration within multidisciplinary teams.

An article published on Transplant International written by Michel Goldman e Kathryn Wood (Goldman and Wood, 2007) shows the current situation of research at European level. The two researchers are respectively coordinator and president of the scientific committee of the project called TRIE (Transplantation Research Integration across Europe) funded by the European Commission within the 6th Framework Programme, second last as Specific Support Action. In the last 10 years, many scientists have gone abroad, weakening considerably the European position in the transplant field; therefore, the European Commission decided to fund projects aimed at completing the current know-how and the available resources with new research programmes in the field, and identify priorities in order to start collaborative research activities at European level. TRIE is one of these project. It focuses to identify common issues in organ and cell transplant in order to join forces for a common goal. The project will gather comments and proposals of the participants and will provide to the European Commission tools and directions to be taken to improve the research on three aspects considered as priority by the experts:

 

1.      biomarkers to define the risk of rejection and to finalize per and post hematopoietic stem cells (CSE) and solid organ transplant therapies,

2.      new cell therapies for CSE and solid organ transplant,

3.      innovative training programmes for doctor, surgeons, scientists and for the whole staff involved in the transplant and research in the field of CSE and solid organ.

 

The success depends on the mobilisation of the European transplant community. To examine the project and actively participate, please see the dedicated website (www.transplantation-research.eu).

 

European research project in transplantation field:

 

ETPOD is a project funded by the DG SANCO of the European Commission. The aim of this project is to design and validate a professional European Training Program on Organ Donation (ETPOD) at different involvement levels, in order to contribute to an increase in organ donation knowledge, maximize the impact in the growth of organ donation rates and disseminate reliable information to the health community in order to raise donation consciousness and encourage a positive attitude towards this issue.

Its goals are:

-         To build a solid European collaborative partnership in the organ donation-transplantation process that will enable to respond to the growing demand of organ replacement therapy by increasing donation rates.

-         To train Health Care Professionals from the European Union countries with the aim of providing them with the know-how, competences and motivation in the organ donation process, to grow to be Transplant Coordinators and lead organ donation-procurement programs in an efficient and successful way. To design and validate a professional European Training Program On Organ Donation (ETPOD) at different involvement levels

 

Alliance-O (European Group for Coordination of National Research Programmes on Organ Donation and Transplantation):

The Alliance-O consortium is built on already existing collaborations. The group then decided to focus on organ transplantation policies and planned to apply for an ERA-NET. The objective is to set up cooperation and coordination of national and regional research activity through a network of programs in the field of OT.

-         Research programmes for improving Organ Transplantation efficiency addressed in this action are: expanding donor pool (heart beating and non heart beating deceased donors, living donors), improving the efficiency and equity of allocation rules, the safety and quality of organ transplantation, the evaluation methodology and fundamental research.

-         7 member states partners : De, Fr, It, Hu, Sp, Po, UK, all represented by national public bodies involved in the organisation of organ transplantation.
Duration: : 3 years.

-         The Agence de la biomédecine (ex-Etablissement français des Greffes) is the coordinator of the project.

-         Alliance-O is a coordination action of the ERA Net scheme of the 6th framework programme

 

Dopki (FP6 SSP-3):

To design specific tools for establishing the potential for organ donation and its outcome and define the limits of organ’s safety and quality for improving organ Donation Rates.

 

EUROCET (E-Ten):

To create a European donation and transplant activity registry for delivering information on organs, tissues and cells to professional operators and institutions taking into account the EURODONOR project, whose goals are: create protocols, Registry, implement methodology, deliver information, support institutional bodies.

 

European Quality System for Tissue Banking:(Public Health 2003)

To Develop the method to ensure standards of quality and safety in relation to tissue banking activities required by the future European Directive.

 

EUSTITE: (Public Health 2005)

Goals: state-of-the-art documents (Eu./non-Eu Countries), set of practical guidelines of tissues establishments, training courses for 40 inspectors, system of adverse event classification and reporting