About the TBRC

In the United States alone, more than 45,000 people a year are placed on waiting lists to receive suitable organs for life-saving transplants. Bone marrow transplantation has likewise become a means of curing hematologic malignancies and other blood-related diseases and is the only hope for thousands suffering from such illnesses. Furthering our understanding of transplantation biology is critical to developing new ways to prevent organ rejection, to finding alternative sources of organs and to providing bone marrow transplantation to patients without available matched sibling donors. The mission of the TBRC is to understand the basic immunologic mechanisms through which specific tolerance can be induced for organ and bone marrow transplant recipients, and to find creative new means of dealing with the shortage of available organs.

Organizational Structure and Staff

History of the TBRC

In 1991 Dr. David H. Sachs returned to the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), in order to establish the TBRC as a new research center in the Department of Surgery. Dr. Sachs had trained in surgery at the MGH from 1968-1970, and then had worked at the NIH for 21 years, where he became Chief of the Immunology Branch of the National Cancer Institute. He subsequently recruited a staff of outstanding scientists directing independent research programs in many phases of transplantation biology, from basic molecular research to large animal pre-clinical and clinical models of transplantation. The staff of the TBRC has grown steadily over the past 12 years, to its current size of approximately 85 persons, comprising seven scientific groups. The emphasis is on collaboration and interaction between these groups of scientists and clinicians.

Collaborations

The TBRC works very closely with the Transplant Unit of the Department of Surgery and the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit of the Department of Medicine. This close collaboration between basic science and clinical applications enhances the quality of the research in both areas. Researchers and clinicians benefit from available expertise in molecular biology, cellular immunology, infectious disease, surgery, medicine, pathology, nephrology, and cardiology.

Researchers attend weekly laboratory meetings with their individual laboratory groups, and other groups with related interests. Large Animal Transplant Rounds are held every Friday morning at the TBRC. Researchers also attend weekly seminars and journal clubs.

Facilities

The TBRC occupies 25,000 square feet of space on the fifth, sixth and ninth floors of the Lawrence E. Martin Research Laboratories in the Charlestown Navy Yard (Building 149) and is fully equipped for general molecular biology and immunology research. A complete Medical Sciences Library is available within the MGH. In addition, the TBRC maintains a 400 sq. ft. library containing scientific journals and books relevant to transplantation.