Research lines

• Pharmacological, technological and surgical strategies in liver transplantation and surgery

  1. Effect of brain death on steatotic and non-steatotic livers undergoing transplantation

  Preclinical studies will be carried out to investigate the pathophysiology of brain death on steatotic and non-steatotic livers undergoing transplantation and to investigate different strategies that protect livers against damage induced by brain death. The overall aim is to find new diagnostic markers and protective pharmacological strategies in liver surgery.

  2. Pathophysiology on steatotic and non-steatotic livers undergoing partial hepatectomy

  Preclinical studies will be carried out to evaluate experimental surgical and pharmacological strategies that protect livers against damage induced by ischemia-reperfusion and increase the tolerance of steatotic livers against the risk that show these liver types to damage and regenerative failure when they are submitted to hepatic resections and living related liver transplantation.

• A new medical device for transporting abdominal organs in clinical practice

  We intend to develop a new organ transport device which uses a revolutionary technology leading to superior preservation of the organs during transport from the donor hospital to the transplant center. This will improve the viability of grafts, increasing the number of organs available for transplant and reducing the mortality rates among patients on the waiting-list. A recently granted patent is currently being exploited by the spin-off Transplant Biomedicals.

• New preservation solutions in liver transplantation

  The research carried out by our group to improve the composition of preservation solutions has culminated in the granting of a patent, which has been sub-licensed to a company. At present, we have two presentations with positive stability studies ready for marketing. We intend to perform clinical tests in organ transplant from extended criteria donors to assess its effectiveness.

• Innovations for organ preservation during long times

  Organs and other biological specimens have traditionally been fixed in formaldehyde, which negatively affect many of their intrinsic properties and do not provide an adequate reflection of living organs. Thus, new preservation solutions and technologies are required in order to approach anatomy holistically and to allow the preservation of biological specimens which are deteriorated either over time or due to handling. These innovations would increase the use of cadaveric specimens for the development of different clinical medical devices in clinical practice.