The aim of the Education Committee (EC) is to coordinate ESOT’s efforts to advance multidisciplinary education for transplant professionals at all career levels and to contribute to their professional development.
The Basic Science Committee promotes scientific issues and transplantation research within ESOT. An active basic science community and an efficient translation of innovation into the clinic are crucial for the future of transplantation medicine.
The European Transplant Allied Healthcare Professionals (ETAHP) reaches out to allied healthcare professionals throughout Europe in order to ensure the best care possible for all transplant patients, with the aim to optimize patient outcomes.
The Young Professionals in Transplantation (YPT) is the Network for Junior Transplant professionals of ESOT, representing all young transplant clinicians and scientists who are beginning a career in transplantation and organ donation.
The mission of ECTORS is to provide a forum for discussing and stimulating novel developments in the fields of cellular therapies in organ transplantation, organ regeneration and generation of new organs from stem cells and biomaterials.
ECTTA is the forum for experience exchange on treatment of patients with end-stage heart and lung failure. Our aim is to improve outcomes for the patients.
EDTCO aims to support health care professionals to provide clinically effective programmes on organ and tissue donation, procurement and transplantation.
EKITA is the Organ Expert Section of ESOT on kidney transplantation in Europe, providing a forum for kidney transplantation professionals to exchange scientific information and views aimed at providing the best service to European patients .
The European Liver and Intestine Transplant Association (ELITA), previously known as the European Liver Transplant Association (ELTA), is a section of ESOT. Its membership represents the expertise on liver and intestinal transplantation in Europe.
ELPAT is a European platform that brings continuity and progress in European research and dialogue on "Ethical, Legal and Psychosocial Aspects of organ Transplantation". ELPAT currently consists of over 160 experts from more than 25 European countries.
EPITA is established to provide a forum for those working in the field of pancreas and islet of Langerhans transplantation or any other alternative form of beta cell replacement in Europe, to exchange scientific information and views related primarily to providing the best service for patients in Europe requiring pancreas or islet transplantation.
VCA has opened a new era in the field of transplantation, reconstructive and restorative surgery. This Section brings together 10 representatives of major European teams at the forefront in this field.
Dr. Gerald Brandacher is scientific director of the Johns Hopkins Reconstructive Transplantation program and vice chair of research in the Department of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He is also a professor in the Departments of Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and serves as the director of interdisciplinary research and innovation for the surgical sciences at Johns Hopkins.
Prior to joining Johns Hopkins in 2010, Dr. Brandacher was a key member of the hand transplant programs in Innsbruck, Austria and at the University of Pittsburgh. As scientific director of the program at UPMC he was instrumental in designing a novel cell-based immunomodulatory treatment protocol for VCA and was also part of the team performing the first bilateral hand transplant and first forearm transplant in the US. In 2018 Dr. Brandacher was a core member of the team executing the world’s first total male genital transplant. His main scientific interests are donor-specific immune tolerance and immunomonitoring strategies.
Dr. Brandacher received his medical degree summa cum laudefrom Leopold Franzens University, Innsbruck, School of Medicine, and completed further surgical training at the Center of Operative Medicine, Department of Visceral, Transplant and Thoracic Surgery, at Innsbruck Medical University. He is the recipient of many prestigious national and international awards related to his work in reconstructive transplantation including The Young Investigator Awards of the American Society of Transplantation and the European Society of Organ Transplantation, The Young Innovator Award of the American Society of Transplantation and the Excellence in Research Award of the American College of Surgeons. Dr. Brandacher has mentored 70 pre- and post-doctoral researches over the past 20 years, and has authored more than 220 peer reviewed papers, 27 book chapters, and has edited two textbooks on hand transplantation. In 2014, he co-founded the journal Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA), and currently serves as its Editor-in-Chief. Dr. Brandacher is principal- or co-investigator of multiple major federal research grants totaling >19M USD in funding on projects related to upper extremity transplantation, cell-based immune modulation, and tolerance induction. He has given over 170 invited lectures and has been a visiting professor around the world and at leading American medical institutions.
Dr. Brandacher has served as the President of the Austrian Society of Surgical Research (2008-2009) and as Chair of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Vascular Composite Allotransplantation Advisory Council (2014-15). He was elected as Chair of the Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation Committee of the European Society of Organ Transplantation (ESOT) in 2015, and is a Founding Member of the American Society of Reconstructive Transplantation (ASRT), for which he currently serves as the President (2018-2020). He has been a Member at Large to the OPTN/UNOS Vascularized Composite Allograft Transplantation (VCA) Committee. In 2015 he was selected as a “Fellow of the American Society of Transplantation”.
