David Mulligan, MD from Yale University joins the show to discuss organ transplantations.

Tune in to learn the following:

• How kidney and liver transplantations currently work and the potential of growing livers and other organs from a patient's stem cells
• What kind of progress has been made with regard to limiting immunosuppression and minimizing side effects of immunosuppressive drugs
• How robotic transplantation programs could improve transplantation success rates in at-risk patient populations

Aside from trying to develop technologies and techniques for successful transplantations, Dr. Mulligan has helped implement robotic transplantation programs for kidney transplants, which have shown great success in reducing the risk of post-surgical infections that impede the healing process and overall success of the transplant.

He is also working on research involving normothermic and hyperthermic perfusion of solid human organs on ex vivo machines to assess their function and determine whether they can be sufficiently repaired or rejuvenated for use as transplants for human patients in need.

"Transplantation…is truly a field that embodies almost every aspect of healthcare," says Dr. Mulligan. He discusses details about kidney and liver transplants, how immunosuppression works and what's being done in an attempt to mitigate its negative consequences, as well as what type of research is being done to determine what type of patients may actually do well without the use of side effect-inducing immunosuppressive medications.

He talks about the differences between acute and chronic rejection of transplants, the extent to which the liver and gut microbiome may be related to immune system performance, how the choice of which antibiotic to use could be affecting the microbiome and immune system's ability to recover post-transplantation, and what he believes will happen in the near and long-term future of organ transplantation.

Learn more about the work being done at Yale University by visiting https://medicine.yale.edu/surgery/transplantation/about/ and visit https://unos.org/ for more general information about transplants.