Connect to Purpose

With gratitude for the 25,000+ organs and tissues annually referred to IIAM, and awe over the magnitude of research being done and the medical advances being made, IIAM is proud to showcase a few of these extraordinary projects!

IIAM and Ambys Medicines have entered into an exciting collaboration for therapeutic application in treating patients with acute and chronic liver failure. Ambys is proud to partner with IIAM and its expansive OPO network in obtaining non-transplantable livers from donors where viable cells can be isolated and expanded through Ambys’ proprietary technology. Ambys Medicines is dedicated to developing a unique, and potentially transformational liver cell therapy product for patients with severe liver diseases. In order to build the materials and generate the data needed to establish this first-of-its-kind cell therapy platform and support its clinical translation, we are in need of near normal human donor livers in order to isolate hepatocytes, which are the cells primarily responsible for liver function. These human donor livers are necessary for developing robust and reproducible manufacturing processes to facilitate production of high quality cell products and to generate the data needed to initiate studies in patients.

Lungs obtained through IIAM for the NIH-funded LungMAP project have contributed to a new study helping GE scientists learn more about the effects of COVID-19 to enable the development of better treatments for patients suffering from this virus. Click on the links below for the full press releases.

Click here for full press release

In honor of American Heart Month, IIAM calls attention to groundbreaking research being done to tackle heart disease, the #1 cause of death worldwide.  IIAM is working diligently to support researchers seeking cures and treatments to alleviate heart disease and ameliorate conditions of those afflicted with it.  In 2020, IIAM placed nearly 200 non-transplantable human hearts for critical research projects.  Here is a sampling of the studies involving hearts provided through IIAM:

• Cardiac cells are isolated to create treatments for potential cures for millions of people afflicted with heart disease.
• Methods of preservation are refined to enable previously deemed “non-transplantable” hearts to be transplanted.
• Devices are developed to identify dangerous plaques before they can cause heart attacks.
• Catheters and LVADs are built with greater sophistication to alleviate patients suffering with chronic heart diseases.
• Deeper understanding about the pathology of atherosclerosis & hypertension are leading to expanded therapies to combat them.
• New drug candidates are tested for safety and efficacy by evaluating metabolism and toxicity profiles.

IIAM has been instrumental in supporting diabetes research, placing nearly 350 pancreas for medical study over the past 4 years to help researchers find a cure for Types 1 and 2 diabetes! Mingder Yang, Ph.D., Director of the Network for Pancreatic Organ Donors with Diabetes (nPOD) noted “Over the last decade, IIAM has been the strongest alliance with nPOD in bridging organ donors and families to Type 1 Diabetes research. By studying these precious gifts, nPOD investigators have changed the understanding of human Type 1 Diabetes and IIAM has been an integral part of the journey. We look forward to further strengthening our productive relationship in uncovering the pathogenesis of this debilitating disease until a cure or prevention for Type 1 Diabetes is found.” Learn more.

Led by Dr. Gloria Pryhuber at the University of Rochester Medical Center, the NIH-funded Lung Molecular Atlas Program (LungMAP) is seeking ways to trigger lung cell re-growth to ultimately help the lungs develop in premature babies, as well as treat adults suffering from COPD. By bringing the greatest lung development experts in the country together to work with non-diseased human lungs from the neonatal stage through 10 years of age, the Lung MAP will create a publicly accessible reference for the research community regarding normal human lung development at the structural, cellular, protein and gene level to help guide us toward novel and more effective treatments for chronic lung disease in children and adults. “It is very probable that what we learn will lead to new therapies for lung disease relevant not only to preterm infants, but also to adults with injured and scarred lungs,” said Dr. Pryhuber.” She added, “Through a nationwide network of organ procurement organizations, IIAM has given us unprecedented access to normal lungs from across the U.S. within the crucial 24-hour window.“