Ruben Nava, MD, an associate professor of surgery in the Section of Thoracic Surgery, received an AATS Foundation Timothy J. Gardner Surgical Investigator Award to support his research focused on graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.
Nava’s research builds on recent work from the Thoracic Immunobiology Laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine showing that B cells are involved in the development of ischemia reperfusion injury-mediated primary graft dysfunction after lung transplantation.
“This AATS investigator award will help us investigate a previously unexplored contribution of recipient-derived B cells recruited shortly after reperfusion to the establishment of immunological B cell responses that promote the production of donor specific antibodies and the development of antibody mediated rejection and chronic lung allograft dysfunction which remains the main barrier to long-term survival in this group of patients,” Nava said.
The Surgical Investigator Program of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) supports clinical and translational research by cardiothoracic surgeons.
“It is an honor to receive this award from the AATS,” Nava said. “This type of research support is vital to advancing our research program and, hopefully, achieving important discoveries.”