December 23, 2024 marks the 70th anniversary of the first successful kidney transplantation in humans. This event has launched one of the most spectacular and consequential fields in modern medicine, saving over 1 million lives in the US alone. However, despite successfully integrating advances in surgery, immunology, genetics, pharmacology, and epidemiology, the ever-evolving field of organ transplantation has never been as challenging as it is today, as essential caveats and gaps in our knowledge remain. In practice, these present significant limitations for clinical organ transplantation but, at the same time, ample opportunities for insightful and ground-breaking translational research.

This Research Topic aims to facilitate a discussion on the future of organ and cell transplantation in 15 years. The Frontiers of Transplantation represents a perfect global platform for a multidisciplinary crosstalk between academic researchers, clinical scientists, and the biotech industry. It is urgently needed to move the field forward, eliminate the existing boundaries, and offer life-saving transplants to patients with terminal organ failure.

We hope to obtain a variety of viewpoints on how challenging current dogmas and status quo may shape the future of organ/cell transplantation by 2040. Topics covered within this selection include, but are not limited to:

1. Solving donor organ shortage

2. Targeting peri-transplant tissue damage

3. Refining organ preservation techniques

4. Acquiring operational tolerance, i.e. “one transplant for life”

5. Transitioning vascularized composite allografts (VCA) from research to standard-of-care

6. Recognizing growing ethical and psychosocial issues, e.g., body-to-head transplantation (BHT), perhaps the final frontier of organ transplantation.

Manuscripts may include comprehensive/mini-reviews, policy/practice reviews, hypothesis/theory articles, perspective articles, and opinion pieces.

Are you interested in contributing a manuscript to this Research Topic?

Organ Transplantation by 2040