Transplant Cohort: First patients will be recruited
The DZIF Transplant Cohort, which was officially founded as an association in February 2014, has completed its preparations. The association can now begin with recruiting first patients and collecting medical data and biological samples.
The DZIF Transplant Cohort is unique in Germany and aims to help improve the treatment of patients who have received a donor organ or a stem cell transplant. Their immune system is suppressed by special drugs to protect the transplant from rejection. This in turn makes the organ receiver more susceptible to other infectious pathogens, which can ultimately lead to life-threatening infections and organ failure.
This is where the Cohort starts its work: To avoid such complications in future and to better understand the effects of the medication, medical data and biological samples of transplanted patients will be centrally collected and managed. The Hannover, Heidelberg, Munich and Tübingen partner sites have collaborated closely to fulfil the final requirements regarding organisation and context. The data and biological materials will be collected and stored according to site and interdisciplinary criteria, and will be made available for research projects in future.
The Transplant Cohort is part of the DZIF Thematic Translational Unit “Infections of the Immunocompromised Host”.