A rendering of the lung restoration center on the Mayo Clinic campus in Jacksonville, Florida.

Mayo Clinic, in collaboration with United Therapeutics Corporation, plans to change the landscape of lung transplantation with the construction of the new Lung Restoration Center in Jacksonville, Florida. The new center will use a process called ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) to revitalize donated lungs, allowing doctors to utilize organs that would otherwise not be viable for transplantation.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states that over 100,000 patients in the United States are waiting for an organ donation, 1,600 of whom need lungs.  The problem facing these patients is that lung tissue itself is very fragile, leaving very few of the donated organs in good enough condition for transplantation. It is the goal of the new Lung Restoration Center to remedy this issue through EVLP which takes donated lungs in marginal condition and inundates them with nutrients and oxygen, restoring them. The center also has interest in exploring the possibilities of regenerative medicine in the lung restoration process.

As part of the collaboration, the two organizations also plan to research ways in which regenerative medicine may aid in treatment of damaged tissues and organs. Mayo Clinic has already made leaps in this particular field of study and the inclusion of United Therapeutics Corporation will provide new avenues for progress.

Construction of the new center is set to be complete by late 2017 and the two organizations are considering plans to create similar centers in both Minnesota and Arizona. Organs treated at the Florida center will be made available to transplant centers across the country.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn5NUxLV-ms
Read the full announcement on the Mayo Clinic News Network.

Tags: Dr. Gianrico Farrugia, Florida, Lung Restoration, Lung Transplant, Mayo Clinic, Mayo Clinic in Florida, Medical Research, News, News Release, regenerative medicine, research, Research, stem cell, Transplantation