Supporting Transplantation Research and Care

A man and a child on a playground

BUILDING ON A HISTORY OF FIRSTS

The University of Minnesota is home to one of the oldest and most successful solid-organ transplant programs in the world. Our physician-researchers pioneered several procedures that are still widely used today, including the world’s first:

  • pancreas transplant (1966)
  • intestinal transplant (1966)
  • total pancreatectomy with islet cell autotransplant (1977)
  • living-donor pancreas transplant (1979)
  • living-donor liver transplant in an adult (1999)

Our teams have more than 50 years of experience caring for 12,000 recipients of heart, lung, kidney, liver, pancreas, islet, or intestine transplants.

PHILANTHROPY MAKES DISCOVERY POSSIBLE

Many solid-organ transplant practices developed at the University of Minnesota have been adopted as standard treatments throughout the world. Our physician-researchers continue to perfect less-invasive surgical techniques, refine the transplant process, and find ways to minimize medications—all to improve long-term outcomes for both organ transplant recipients and living organ donors.

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What sets up apart

Illustration with a clock
Freezing time

U scientists believe they’ve found a way to keep living organs for transplants undamaged longer through cryopreservation.

Portrait of a researcher in a lab
A better transplant

A U-led research team shows that transplant success is possible without the need for long-term immunosuppressants.

Older man and woman at a sporting event.
Need transplant, will travel

An innovative TP-IAT surgery pioneered at the U gave Julie Meek a new chance at life after pancreatitis.