Alberta Transplant Institute
The Alberta Transplant Institute is a multidisciplinary, virtual institute that brings together researchers, clinicians, educators/scholars, trainees, allied health personnel, and patient-partners to work towards common goals of improving transplantation and donation in Alberta, and achieving global impact in cutting-edge research, improvements in patient care, education and advocacy.
Transplantation has a long history at the University of Alberta. The clinical transplant programs perform between 250-300 transplant procedures per year in adults and children for kidney, heart, liver, lung, pancreas, and intestinal transplantation.
What we offer
Education
From weekly seminars showcasing local and international talent, summer studentship and graduate studentship awards to supporting our brightest young minds, we are wholeheartedly committed to nurturing an amazing new generation of scientists, researchers and health professionals.
Research
With Alberta already ranked sixth worldwide for transplantation research, the ATI is committed to seeing us in first position. With the strength of our members and their decades of experience as innovators and change makers, we can develop solutions that directly benefit the lives of the patients, families, and donors we serve, here in Alberta and in the world beyond our borders.
Membership
ATI membership is open to all those residing in Alberta who are committed to improving outcomes for patients, families and donors through advances in donation and transplantation research, education and advocacy.
Become a Member/Update Your Membership open in a new tabOur Mission
- Increase collective research output and impact of ATI members.
- Support the continued learning of ATI community members with ongoing educational and professional development opportunities.
- Act as an essential resource for and partner to patients, families and donors.
Our Vision
- Improve outcomes for patients, families and donors (living and deceased).
- Support ATI members in achieving internationally-recognized excellence in donation and transplantation research.
- Train and promote the next generation of donation and transplantation specialists.
- Assist patients, family and donor-led advocacy through donations and transplantations.
Our Goals
- Improve long-term health and wellness for transplant recipients.
- Strengthen donations across Alberta.
Message from the Director
With a pan-provincial scope, the membership of the Alberta Transplant Institute (ATI) includes over 200 basic science researchers, clinician scientists, patient, family, and donor (PFD) partners, healthcare professionals, trainees and other citizen supporters.
Organ and tissue transplantation is the life-saving procedure for patients with chronic organ failure due to many diseases without a cure otherwise. The ATI’s mandate is to connect our diverse, multidisciplinary membership in Alberta and across Canada, to jointly overcome challenges in offering organs and tissue to all those in need for their lifespans.
Organ and tissue donation and transplantation is a truly multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder endeavor in which the ATI serves as the connection for Alberta’s transplant community: transplant patients, caregivers, living donors, deceased donors, or their families, researchers, learners, and care providers across the whole health care system. Together we form a community of practice to advance the field of donation and transplantation to the benefit of Albertans and all patients in need and living with a transplant through innovation, discovery, and education.
The ATI was founded in 2012 and has supported weekly seminar series, and annual research days with international speakers. In addition to those ongoing services to its membership and the organ donation and transplantation community, over the past six years, the ATI has directly or in collaboration with partners, funded 17 research grants and 21 studentships in service to its larger mandate of growing our innovation capacity right here in Alberta.
Our leadership team is committed to continue pursuing our mission.
Dr. Michael Mengel
Director, Alberta Transplant Institute
Support ATI
All financial contributions made to the Alberta Transplant Institute support our efforts to advance organ donation and transplantation in Alberta and beyond.