“I know more about lungs than I ever wanted to,” said Wanda Tunnell, 65. The Tuscaloosa, Ala., resident’s double lung transplant in May 2021 was the culmination of a long journey of unanswered questions and terrifying episodes of breathing trouble.

Currently used Food and Drug Administration-approved transplant drugs — with the addition of an also already FDA-approved complement inhibitor — are the optimal immunosuppression regimen for pig-to-human kidney transplants, according to a landmark discovery by University of Alabama at Birmingham investigators. The peer-reviewed research is published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

UAB Medicine, home to Alabama’s leading transplant program, the University of Alabama at Birmingham Comprehensive Transplant Institute, has been named the presenting medical partner of the Transplant Games of America when the biennial event comes to Birmingham in July 2024. Additionally, UAB’s Sports and Exercise Medicine team will be providing medical coverage for all athletes at the games.

Emily Boydston, RN, has truly unique insight into being a dedicated uterus transplant coordinator – she’s the only one in the United States so far. It’s been a big year for her and her patients, given that the uterus transplant program at the UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute (CTI) recently delivered its first baby born from a uterus transplant pregnancy outside of a clinical trial.

At age 17, Mallory was given a devastating diagnosis that would drastically change the way she could start a family one day.  

Participants share their experiences in the UAB Living Donor Navigator Program. Read their testimonials below.

On their wedding day 34 years ago, when Steve and Lynne Harrison vowed to be at each other’s side in sickness and in health, neither could have imagined the journey ahead.

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Cardiovascular Institute (CVI) published a study in Circulation showing that, among ventricular assist device recipients, patients with a particular form of dilated cardiomyopathy known as familial dilated cardiomyopathy have better clinical outcomes compared with other forms of the disease.

A heart transplant is a procedure in which a damaged or diseased heart is replaced with a healthy one, usually in patients with advanced heart failure that prevents blood from being effectively pumped throughout the body. Common conditions that can lead to advanced heart failure and heart transplantation include coronary heart disease, damaged heart valves […]

A pancreas transplant is a procedure in which a healthy pancreas is removed from a donor and implanted into another person, usually a patient who has serious health complications related to insulin-dependent (type 1) diabetes. These complications may include frequent insulin reactions, consistently poor blood sugar control, kidney damage, or other factors that cannot be […]

A uterus transplant is a promising new procedure that helps some women overcome uterine factor infertility (UFI) and carry a baby. UFI is a condition in which a woman cannot get pregnant because she was born without a uterus, had it surgically removed during a hysterectomy, or has a uterus that does not function properly. […]

Lung transplantation is a procedure for end-stage lung disease to replace a diseased organ with a healthier one from a deceased organ donor. It is an option used to improve the health and prolong survival of patients. Lung transplant can benefit patients with diseases such as cystic fibrosis, COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), idiopathic pulmonary […]