Editorial introductions

Abstract

Current Opinion in Organ Transplantation was launched in 1996. It is part of a successful series of review journals whose unique format is designed to provide a systematic and critical assessment of the literature as presented in the many primary journals. The field of organ transplantation is divided into 18 sections that are reviewed once a year. Each section is assigned a Section Editor, a leading authority in the area, who identifies the most important topics at that time. Here we are pleased to introduce the Journal's Section Editors for this issue. SECTION EDITORS Xian C. LiXian C. LiDr Xian C. Li is Professor of Immunology, Weill Cornell Medicine of Cornell University and director of Immunobiology &Transplant Sciences at Houston Methodist Hospital in Houston Texas. He also holds the Max and Lillie Frosch Centennial Chair at Houston Methodist. His lab studies the fundamental mechanisms of transplant rejection and transplant tolerance. The goal of his team is to advance transplant medicine through fundamental research. Dr. Xian Li is recognized with many awards and elected memberships; He received the American Society of Transplantation (AST) Young Investigator Award, AST Wyeth Basic Science Award, and the AST Wyeth Achievement Award. Dr. Li has served in the AST basic science advisory council, TTS basic science committee, chair of the AST Grants Executive Committee, and Chair of ATC 2018. He is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, a standing member of the NIH study sections and DOD grant review panels. He is now an associate editor of American Journal of Transplantation and the journal of Transplantation. Linda C. CendalesLinda C. CendalesDr Linda C. Cendales, MD, is an Associate Professor of Surgery, a Duke Health Scholar, and the Director of the Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation at Duke University Medical Center. During her fellowship in Hand and Microsurgery, Dr Cendales helped organize the first VCA team in the U.S. and participated in the country's first two hand transplants in Louisville, KY. She was subsequently the first surgeon accepted into the Transplant Surgery and Immunobiology Fellowship at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). During her time at the NIH, Dr Cendales established and published a model of VCA in nonhuman primates and has one of the largest experiences in VCA in non-human primates reported in the scientific literature. She organized the first international symposium on VCA histopathology at the International Banff Conferences on Allograft Pathology leading to the published classification system now used as a standard for clinical reporting of rejection. Prior to joining Duke, Dr Cendales established the VCA program at Emory University and led the multi-disciplinary team that performed Georgia's first hand transplant in March 2011. While at Duke, Dr Cendales established the VCA program and led the multi-disciplinary team that performed North Carolina's first hand transplant and first bilateral hand transplant in May 2016 and in November 2018 respectively. Dr Cendales is the Principal Investigator of clinical and translational studies in VCA funded by the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr Cendales is an Associate Editor for the American Journal of Transplantation, is the Chair of the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network/United Network for Organ Sharing (OPTN/UNOS) Vascularized Composite Allograft (VCA) Committee, and the co-chair elect of the American Transplant Congress, and the Past-President of the International Society of Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation Society (ISVCA). She has co-authored numerous scientific manuscripts, abstracts, and invited publications. Similarly, Dr Cendales has made countless presentations at national and international meetings.