Message From the ATI Director

Dr. Lori West
ATI Director

The Alberta Transplant Institute (ATI) represents a tremendously talented group of clinician scientists, basic scientists, patient/family/donor partners, educators, and policy-makers all dedicated to advancing donation and transplantation in Alberta and Canada.

Together, we are working towards common goals of promoting the development and growth of all aspects of research in the donation and transplantation realm. The ATI is an exciting collaboration of research leaders and decision makers dedicated to impacting our health system for the betterment of all patients and families impacts by organ and tissue donation and transplantation through the advancement of cutting-edge research into bedside and benchside practice.

The need for more health, transplantable organs in Canada is critical. Through our ATI research advancements, vision, and mission, we are driving technological change to better assess, treat, and even repair donated organs outside the body, prior to transplantation. Our researchers are striving to improve patient outcomes every single day through each discovery, reducing instances of organ rejection, monitoring transplant organs for early signs of distress, and better customizing care and treatment options to each patient.

Alberta has recently implemented an online donor registry, and has made great strides in the number of people who have expressed their intention to be an organ donor. However, a great deal more work needs to be done in organ donation awareness in Alberta, to help it match and even exceed the donation rates of other provinces in Canada and even the world.

Dr. Lori West is the Canada Research Chair in Cardiac Transplantation (Tier 1). She is the Director of the Alberta Transplant Institute and Canadian Donation & Transplantation Research Program (CDTRP). She is also a Professor in the Departments of Pediatrics, Surgery, and Medical Microbiology/Immunology and Lab Medicine/Pathology.