Northwestern Medicine combines its transplant programs into a new institute

Northwestern Medicine on Tuesday launched the Northwestern Medicine Transplant Institute, bringing four of its transplant programs under one organization in Chicago.^{1, 2} Dr. Satish Nadig, a transplant surgeon, is its executive director.^{1, 2}

The institute has raised about $26 million in philanthropic money so far, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.¹ FOX 32 Chicago said a five-year fundraising campaign made it possible.²

What it combines

The institute joins the Northwestern Medicine Organ Transplant Centers, the Center for Transplant Innovation, the Center for Transplant Research and Education and the Center for Transplant Access.^{1, 2} About 300 people work in it, including surgeons, nurses and social workers, according to the Sun-Times.¹

Northwestern performed 691 transplants last year, according to the health system.^{1, 2} FOX 32 reported that was its most ever, and that Northwestern says the total puts it among the nation’s top 10 transplant centers by volume.²

The research

Nadig said the goal is to become “the destination for transplant innovation.”² He told the Sun-Times that transplant medicine began in the 1950s but has stagnated since around the 1990s.¹

Northwestern is studying whether transplant patients can stop taking anti-rejection drugs, which recipients usually take for life, the Sun-Times reported.¹ The institute also plans to use technology including artificial intelligence to match donors and recipients.^{1, 2} FOX 32 listed other work underway, including robotic surgery, xenotransplantation and liver transplants for terminal colon cancer.²

“All of these isolated things that challenge conventional boundaries, we make them mainstream,” Nadig said.¹

Howard Chrisman, president and CEO of Northwestern Memorial HealthCare, said donor support will help create a future “where even more patients have the opportunity to thrive after transplant.”²

The wait in Illinois

More than 4,700 people in Illinois were waiting for an organ as of October, most of them for a kidney, according to national transplant network data cited by the Sun-Times.¹

One recent patient is Arthur Nichols, 70, of West Bloomfield Township, Michigan, whose kidneys were damaged by multiple myeloma.¹ After going into remission in 2024 he needed dialysis several times a week, the Sun-Times reported.¹ His daughter, Natalie Nichols, 42, of Fishers, Indiana, donated a kidney, and the transplant took place Sept. 18.^{1, 2}

“If you had a chance to save your best friend, you would do it,” Natalie Nichols told the Sun-Times.¹