This message was sent to ##Email## To advertise in this publication please click here October 1, 2020 .ASSOCIATION NEWS One Week Left to Save on #ITNS20 What are you waiting for? Join your transplant nursing community for the first ever virtual ITNS Annual Meeting, October 22-25, 2020. Your registration gives you access to all educational sessions and e-posters for one year! Sing-up by October 7 to save $100 on your registration fee. Learn more. Transplant Nursing Excellence Award The International Transplant Nurses Society Transplant Nursing Award is an annual program designed to recognize the outstanding accomplishments, commitment, and contribution to the field of transplantation. 2020 is the Year of the Nurse! The role of the transplant nurse is unique and often complex and challenging, and we want to celebrate a nurse whose career has exemplified the mission of ITNS. Apply today. .INDUSTRY NEWS How the airline industry recovers from COVID-19 could determine who gets organ transplants The Conversation The COVID-19 pandemic has crippled the airline industry. Passenger numbers are down more than two-thirds from last year, and airlines have been canceling flights and shutting down routes. It’s frustrating for travelers, but for patients on organ transplant waitlists, the loss of flights can put a life-saving kidney or heart out of reach. READ MORE  SPONSORED CONTENT Promoted by Natera National Kidney Foundation CME Course: Evaluation of Acute Allograft Rejection in Kidney Transplantation KDIGO Webinar: The Critical Role of Genetics in Kidney Disease NEW: The Renasight Genetic Panel Can Inform the Care Path for Patients Diagnosed with CKD Learn about Prospera for a Better Kidney Transplant Rejection Assessment Why Prospera is the Right Choice for Managing Transplant Recipients Remotely How a COVID-19 procedure helps the case for better lung transplant use HCP Live In late May, a surgery team at the Northwestern Medicine Lung Transplant Program executed a medical marvel: the first double lung transplant in the U.S. for a severely ill patient with COVID-19. Ankit Bharat, MD, chief of thoracic surgery and surgical director for the program, shared the incredible story on the September episode of Lungcast, highlighting what his team has found to be foundational evidence for a last-ditch procedure for patients failing to recover from the virus. Though the successful transplant set a precedent for COVID-19 care, Bharat also sees it helping to confront another great U.S. public health issue: the underutilization of donor lungs. READ MORE Outdated corneal donation policies prevent sight-restoring surgery CU Anschutz Medical Campus via Medical Xpress Some forms of blindness and visual impairment can be cured with a corneal transplant surgery using donated eye tissue. However, federal regulations in the United States and Canada severely restrict the ability of sexually active gay and bisexual men from donating their eye tissue. READ MORE  SPONSORED VIDEO Kidney Transplant Patients and Immunosuppression Now you can see the different ways that different formulations are released and absorbed in the gastrointestinal system. You’ll also have the opportunity to explore comparative pharmacokinetic results in rapid metabolizers, efficacy data over 2 years, and safety information. WATCH VIDEO Gene-edited pigs expected to provide organs for human transplants Shine An international team led by Chinese researchers has used gene-editing technology to produce “Pig 3.0” prototypes, a leap forward for life-saving organ transplants from animals to humans. In a recent paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering, researchers from China and the United States reported the successful production of pigs whose organs are more compatible with the human immune system and are free of active porcine endogenous retrovirus. READ MORE Study finds lung transplant patients not given antifungal preventive drugs have higher risk of death May Clinic via EurekAlert! Antifungal preventive medications reduce mortality risk by half in the first year following lung transplantation, according to Mayo Clinic research involving 667 patients who received lung transplants from 2005 to 2018. The retrospective study, published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society, is the largest ever to evaluate the effectiveness of antifungal preventive drugs in lung transplant recipients who are particularly susceptible to invasive fungal infections. These infections are associated with a nearly threefold increase in mortality for lung transplant recipients. READ MORE  FEATURED ARTICLE   Support specialist for kidney transplantation Veloxis Pharmaceuticals Did you know there’s a transplant support system to help patients and providers with best-in-class assistance and resources? This ongoing support system assists with benefit investigation, prior authorization assistance, coordination with specialty pharmacies, prescription fulfillment navigation, and CoverMyMeds® access. There’s also a $0 co-pay card to overcome financial barriers. Find out more LEARN MORE   Pre-transplant solid organ malignancy and organ transplant candidacy American Journal of Transplantation via DocWire News Patients undergoing evaluation for solid organ transplantation often have a history of malignancy. Although the cancer has been treated in these patients, the benefits of transplantation needs to be balanced against the risk of tumor recurrence, especially in the setting of immunosuppression. Prior guidelines of when to transplant patients with a prior treated malignancy do not take in to account current staging, disease biology, or advances in cancer treatments. To develop contemporary recommendations, the American Society of Transplantation held a consensus workshop to perform a comprehensive review of current literature regarding cancer therapies, cancer stage specific prognosis, the kinetics of cancer recurrence, and the limited data on the effects of immunosuppression on cancer-specific outcomes. READ MORE CRISPR-Cas9-edited tacrolimus-resistant antiviral T cells for advanced adoptive immunotherapy in transplant recipients Molecular Therapy Viral infections, such as with cytomegalovirus, remain a major risk factor for mortality and morbidity of transplant recipients because of their requirement for lifelong immunosuppression. Antiviral drugs often cause toxicity and sometimes fail to control disease. Thus, regeneration of the antiviral immune response by adoptive antiviral T cell therapy is an attractive alternative. READ MORE Donor-specific antibody characteristics including persistence and complement-binding capacity increase risk for chronic lung allograft dysfunction The Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation Chronic lung allograft dysfunction is the major complication limiting long-term survival in lung transplant recipients, with those developing donor-specific anti-HLA antibodies previously found to have increased risk for CLAD. However, as DSA responses vary in timing of development, specificity, breadth, persistence and complement-binding capacity, researchers hypothesized that these characteristics would impact CLAD and survival outcomes. READ MORE   ITNS Insider Connect with ITNS Dennis Hall, Director of Publishing, MultiView, 469-420-2656 | Download media kit Anne Casey, Content Editor, MultiView, 469-420-2619 | Contribute news International Transplant Nurses Society 8735 W. 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