The mission of the Transplant Ethics and Policy research program in the Division of Medical Ethics at NYU Langone is to advance organ and tissue donation, procurement, allocation, and transplant through examination of ethical and regulatory issues.

What We Do

Our program aims to use ethical frameworks, concepts, and analysis to achieve multiple goals:

• reduce the shortage of tissues and organs available for transplant
• support the development of new technologies that mitigate transplant challenges, including advances in xenotransplants, bioengineered tissues, and other artificial devices
• promote equity and justice in organ and tissue-related research and healthcare
• advance policy and foster education addressing the needs of all major stakeholders, including tissue donors and recipients, caregivers and support networks, clinical care teams, medical institutions, organ procurement organizations, regulators, and payors
• define and proactively address issues in broader uses of human tissue specimens from single cells to whole bodies in therapy, research, and education

Disclosure

The Transplant Ethics and Policy research program is funded by a gift from United Therapeutics, and is an independent, separate entity from the NYU Langone Transplant Institute. Advisory board members are not compensated. We do not represent an official view of NYU Langone Health or any employer or other institutional affiliation of any advisory board member. We advise companies, policy makers, and institutions, but we do not advocate for particular legislation or promote an agenda.

Notable Events

The first annual Transplant Ethics and Policy Research Conference will take place in October 2024. Please check back here for updates over the next several months.

On January 27, 2021, we hosted a half-day virtual Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Catalyst Conference to define and discuss the ethical, legal, and social implications of transplantation genomics. The conference examined the unique issues at the intersection of translational genomics and transplant clinical care, focusing on questions of utility, equity, privacy, consent, and adherence to best practices. For more information, please contact Tamar Schiff, MD, at Tamar.Schiff2@NYULangone.org.

Contact Us

To learn more about our research initiatives, please contact Brendan Parent, JD, at Brendan.Parent@NYULangone.org, or Tamar Schiff, MD, at Tamar.Schiff2@NYULangone.org.